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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959018">Accidental Roommates</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_dragon/pseuds/t_dragon'>t_dragon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>EXO (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Demons, Demon Summoning, M/M, Roommates</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:21:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,870</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959018</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_dragon/pseuds/t_dragon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jongdae really just wanted to get rid of whatever bad energies might be lingering in his new home - he never planned on acquiring another bad force and have him linger around instead.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Byun Baekhyun/Kim Jongdae | Chen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>103</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Shall we Chen? Fictional Fest First Round</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Accidental Roommates</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompt SWC084: <i>Jongdae accidentally summons a demon in his house and now the demon finds his home extremely comfortable rather than going back to the depths of hell.</i></p><p>Hello, everyone!<br/>First, I'd like to apologize to the mods, I've been a horrible mess throughout this all, thank you for not kicking me out after I went over the time of my first extension &gt;&lt; or the second time... You've really gone above and beyond and been so lenient, and I'm very grateful!</p><p>Secondly, I <i>really</i> liked this prompt when I found it, even though I wasn't supposed to join SWC, and I know I haven't made it justice, so I'm sorry about that too. Hopefully it'll still be enough of an okay read!<br/>If it seems a bit rushed, that's because it very much was. I had something else entirely, but it was getting too long for me to be able to complete even with a second extension, so I, like the idiot I am, scraped all that and started anew. And stress-wrote a much longer fic than I planned. Which is this. Have fun?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Putting the box he was carrying down on the floor, Jongdae stretched with a groan - but there was a pleased, if half-pained, smile on his lips.</p><p>“All done!” he exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips as he looked around at the <em> mess. </em></p><p>Unfortunately, moving meant having to deal with a shitload of boxes all over the place, but Jongdae was not too mad about it. After all, he had just managed to buy something that came very close to his dream house, and now he was about to start unpack and create a home where he would hopefully spend the rest of his life. Somewhere that was all his, where he could come home after a long day and rest, hide away when the world became a bit too much, a home for his weary heart-</p><p>“Get out of the doorway!”</p><p>Startling out of his thoughts, Jongdae moved further into his new house, almost tripping over his own feet as he turned around, watching as Chanyeol stumbled inside and almost dropped the box he was holding before putting it down on the floor with a rather loud <em> thud. </em></p><p>“I told you I could take that one,” Minseok said as he entered after Chanyeol, just a hint of sweat across his brow hinting at the strain of having carried several boxes and some furniture for like an hour now, but otherwise seemingly unaffected.</p><p>Squinting at the text scrawled across the side of the box Chanyeol was still half collapsed over, Jongdae snickered. “That’s one of my book boxes, must’ve been heavy.”</p><p>Chanyeol’s head shot upright to give Jongdae one of the most impressive deadpan stares that Jongdae had ever been on the receiving end of, and he almost felt a bit proud for having managed to lure it out.</p><p>“Which is why I should’ve carried it,” Minseok said, having put his box down and stepped up beside Chanyeol, dragging a hand through the taller’s hair.</p><p>Immediately, Chanyeol’s deadpan switched to a pleased smile, eyes closing as he leaned into the touch, and not for the first time could Jongdae not help but be reminded of an oversized puppy when he looked at his friend.</p><p>“Didn’t want you to have to strain yourself too much,” Chanyeol said, voice just above a soft hum.</p><p>“I’m stronger than you,” Minseok pointed out, but the gummy smile on his face told Jongdae a lot.</p><p>“Who said chivalry is dead?” Jongdae said with an amused snort, getting a quick smile too.</p><p>“Chivalry will die soon if it doesn’t get fed,” Chanyeol piped up, pleased expression exchanged for one of a pitiful puppy. “As in me, I’m chivalry, and hungry.”</p><p>“Stop pouting, <em> chivalry </em>, and tell me what pizza you want,” Jongdae said with a laugh, digging his phone out of his pocket. “As promised, food in return for help!”</p><p>After some happy cheering from his friends, Jongdae quickly ordered the requested food. As they waited, they set out to plug in the internet and the TV, Jongdae having made sure to have a connection for when he moved in, managing to finish just as the doorbell rang. They spread their feast on the floor, themselves around it, and quickly devoured it all.</p><p>Apparently moving made you famished.</p><p>Chanyeol and Minseok did not stick around for long after that, Minseok deciding it was time for the two of them to head out as Chanyeol slumped into his lap, eyes starting to close. Jongdae agreed that that was probably for the best, because he had no sofa or anything, and cramming three people into his bed - while possible - was going to be a mess most likely.</p><p>So instead, Jongade stood out on his porch and merrily waved as Minseok and Chanyeol drove off into the night, before slipping back inside and starting to clean up before heading to bed.</p><p>As Jongdae moved around, just familiarizing himself and making sure that everything seemed to be okay, doors being properly locked, he could not help but grin. This was <em> his </em> place, his new house, and he was going to make it the best home ever!</p><p> </p><p>The next weekend, Jongdae finally had the time to properly start arranging his new home as he wanted it. And he figured that the first thing to do, before he could put everything together and in perfect order for him, was to make sure that it was <em> completely </em> cleaned out.</p><p>So Jongdae headed online and began to Google, to find the best and easiest way to cleanse a house from whatever might still be lingering. Jongdae wanted a clean start, a white slate, to be able to decorate as he wished, and he wanted to make sure even what might not be visible would be washed away too.</p><p>Hence him looking for various cleansing rituals on increasingly obscure websites.</p><p>“Sage, of course…,” Jongdae muttered to himself as he switched over to his notes app, having found something promising and now writing down the necessary tools for it. “That’s an obvious requirement… And I guess only requirement for this. Wow, that’s easy… Too easy? I guess I’ll have to wait and see.”</p><p>It took Jongdae a surprisingly short time to find some sage when he went out to look for some. Sure, he was living in Seoul, it was a <em> big </em> city, but he still expected it to take longer than the single hour he spent. Not that he knew if he got the right kind of sage or not - were there different kinds of sage? Jongdae had no idea - but he figured it probably did not matter since the website had not specified one particular kind anyway.</p><p>Swinging by the grocery store on his way home, Jongdae stocked up on a few things and bought himself some lunch. He really did not feel like cooking, and he was actually a bit excited about getting to performing the cleansing, so it was all too easy to pick up something he just needed to heat up before being able to eat it. Maybe not the healthiest alternative… But Minseok was due for doing his monthly <em> ‘force Jongdae to the gym and try to kill him’ </em> thing soon anyway.</p><p>Coming home, Jongdae put away his groceries and threw his meal into the microwave, pulling out his phone to check the cleansing instructions as he ate.</p><p>“I need to air out the house for at least an hour?” Jongdae mumbled to himself, pressing his chopsticks against his lips. “The longer the better? Shit, I should’ve done this as soon as I got home…”</p><p>Quickly getting up, Jongdae jogged through his house to open up windows, choosing not to open the front door or back entrance door, only the patio door. It <em> should </em> be enough… Hopefully.</p><p>After finishing the last of his meal, Jongdae quickly washed up and put things away. Figuring he had quite the bit of time to kill now, he began to pick up around the house, taking out the trash and putting away the dishes from his dishwasher. There was not much to do since Jongdae was not an overly messy person to begin with, and he had been trying to keep it clean in preparation for the cleansing, but there were still some things lying around.</p><p>When Jongdae could no longer find anything to clean he instead pulled out his laptop, figuring he could just as well get some work done. Wrapping up in a blanket to ward off the slight chill, he sat down in his brand new sofa and powered up his laptop.</p><p>About two hours later, Jongdae rubbed at his eyes, glanced at the clock - and startled as he realized just how much time had passed. He did have a tendency to get lost in his code… But the website said to air out for as long as possible, and he had now aired out more than the minimum amount of time!</p><p>Saving his work thrice, Jongdae put his laptop away before trying to find his phone - which he had left in his kitchen for some reason - and getting the sage.</p><p>“Okay, let’s see here…,” Jongdae mumbled as he scrolled through the various steps spelled out on the website. “First step, light the sage. Obviously.”</p><p>Putting down his phone and the sage on the living room table, Jongdae raced around his house to try to find some matches or a lighter. In the end, he managed to dig a lighter out through a still-packed box in his kitchen, before hurrying back to the living room again.</p><p>“Okay, let’s light this up,” Jongdae slowly said as he held the sage to the flame, watching as the fire began to lick at the dried plant. “Then let it burn for a little while before blowing it out, and I <em> should </em> get smoke.”</p><p>Waiting for about twenty seconds, and then a few more to be on the safe side, Jongdae slowly blew the fire out, until he got the orange embers it had said he should get. Soon after, the smoke built up, and Jongdae coughed as he got a face-full of it, eyes tearing up a bit. It really was not nice up close like that.</p><p>“Sage lit up and smoking, what’s next,” Jongdae wheezed, going for his phone to check the next step. He knew he was supposed to start in his living room, perform some kind of symbol or something, and then move through his house…?</p><p>Unlocking his phone, Jongdae squinted at the descriptive images for the next step. It was looking a bit… <em> Strange </em>, but whatever. What was the worst thing that could happen?</p><p>Jongdae tried not to think of the worst case scenario.</p><p>Inhaling deeply, Jongdae immediately regretted it as he inhaled too much smoke again, giving another little cough. “Well, then, here we go…”</p><p>Clearing his throat, Jongdae then began to draw through the air, trying to follow along the picture on his phone. He was sure he messed up some parts of it, but on the whole he thought he did pretty well. Mentally patting himself, Jongdae checked what the next step was - which was to wait.</p><p>“Wait for what?” Jongdae asked, eyebrows pulling together into a confused frown.</p><p>Jongdae had barely finished his question before <em> something </em> appeared. Smoke, to be exact, the smoke from the still-smouldering sage, gathering together to form a shadowy figure standing right in front of Jongdae.</p><p>What the fuck…?</p><p>
  <em> “NO, KYUNGSOO, YOU FUC-” </em>
</p><p>The shadowy smoke billowed and flowed down a figure, revealing a white-haired man, mouth still open in the yell he had been in the middle of before he had cut himself off, luminous blue eyes having landed on Jongdae.</p><p>Jongdae had no idea for how long they stood frozen, just staring at each other. It could have been seconds, it could have been minutes, it honestly could have been a whole hour, Jongdae did not know, but he would believe half an eternity had passed before they finally snapped out of their shared stupor.</p><p>“Who the fuck are you? What are you doing in my house?!” Jongdae shrilly exclaimed, holding up the still-smoking sage in front of him to ward off the… <em> Being </em>, standing in front of him.</p><p>Huffing at getting a face-full of smoke, the being waved a hand in front of it to get rid of the smoke. “I thought I was getting summoned, but it seems like you’re trying to smoke me out.”</p><p>“Wait, <em> summoned? </em>” Jongdae asked, lowering the sage in his surprise.</p><p>“Yeah, summoned,” the being confirmed, using a single, slender finger to motion towards Jongdae. “That’s what you’ve been doing, wasn’t that what you wanted to do?”</p><p>“I was just trying to do a simple cleanse of my new home…,” Jongdae weakly said. “The website said it would get rid of everything quickly and without me having to do several different cleanses…”</p><p>“And this is why we don’t do things we don’t fully understand that we found online, sweetie,” the being said, tutting as he shook his head. “Though it wasn’t really <em> wrong </em> , to be fair, summoning a demon to help cleanse a place is a fairly quick and easy process that does get rid of everything without <em> you </em> having to do a lot. You basically hired a supernatural cleaner.”</p><p>“I’m sorry what now?” Jongdae asked, head starting to spin a little, but the <em> demon </em> was now moving away from Jongdae and apparently ignoring the fact that he was speaking, instead looking around Jongdae’s living room.</p><p>“Oh, this is a nice little place you have here,” the demon said, peeking through the door opening into Jongdae’s new kitchen. “Yeah, this is great, perfect, I don’t mind staying here!”</p><p>“Y-you what now-” Jongdae managed to stutter out, head spinning more and more. “<em> Stay?! </em>”</p><p>The demon turned to look at Jongdae, raising an eyebrow kind of judgingly. “Yes, of course. You summoned me to get rid of bad spirits, right? I don’t have any objections, so I’m accepting the job.”</p><p>“But <em> you’re </em> a bad spirit!” Jongdae spluttered, wholly unable to believe what was going on.</p><p>“Oh, I can be <em> real </em> bad if you want me to,” the demon purred as he slowly began to actually <em> stalk </em> towards Jongdae, who felt his heart speed up.</p><p>Holding up his hands, forming a cross with his fingers, Jongdae backed up until his body hit one of the walls. “No, stay back, demon!”</p><p>Giving a rather obviously playful growl as he bared his teeth, the demon got close enough to nip at Jongdae’s fingers, before catching a fingertip between his teeth and having Jongdae’s breath hitch.</p><p>“Your feeble symbols can’t save you now,” the demon rumbled after having let go of Jongdae’s finger, pulling out a lower register Jongdae would never have thought him able of - before doing a complete one-eighty and giving a bright grin, snatching the sage out of Jongdae’s hand. “Literally, I’m here to stay, can’t get rid of me! Do you have any chalk?”</p><p>When the demon finally moved away, Jongdae was feeling rather faint, the wall behind him almost not enough support to keep him standing.</p><p>“Chalk…?” Jongdae shakily asked. “W-what do you need <em> chalk </em> for?”</p><p>“To draw stuff, of course, what else do you use chalk for?” the demon snarked, and Jongdae was sure that he was rolling his eyes. “Whatever, I can make it work with the sage, just need it to stay long enough.”</p><p>“Need <em> what </em> to stay for long enough?” Jongdae asked as he hurried after the demon, not sure if he wanted to see where things were going, or stop the other right now.</p><p>“I was about to say <em> ‘it’s like you don’t even know anything about this’ </em>, but then I realized that’s exactly what it is,” the demon threw over his shoulder, clearly amused. “Just, watch and learn, I guess! Now, how many doors inside do you have?”</p><p>“Uh, well, this one,” Jongdae said, pointing towards the main entrance door they were apparently heading towards, “then one back entrance, and one door leading out to the back patio.”</p><p>“Aight!” the demon cheerfully said - before he dragged a finger against the still-smoking sage, leaving it smudged with ashes.</p><p>Jongdae could not help but wince at the action, that had to hurt, right? There was no apparent flame but the sage was still smouldering, so it had to burn at least a little? But the demon did not flinch, just went through with it before reaching up to draw some strange figures against the back of the door. He had to refresh the ash on his finger twice to complete it, and Jongdae winced each time.</p><p>“There, all done!” the demon said, still as cheerful, as he looked over at Jongdae. “Where’s the next door?”</p><p>Still feeling a bit confused about what the demon was doing, Jongdae turned to point towards the backdoor, before leading the way.</p><p>The demon drew the same - or at least similarly-looking enough for Jongdae to not see a difference - symbols on the backdoor and patio door, using the sage ash.</p><p>“There we go, now I just need your acceptance of me and this protection,” the demon said as he turned to Jongdae, catching him off guard.</p><p>“Uh, what? Acceptance?” Jongdae asked, getting more confused again.</p><p>“Of course,” the demon stated, looking very serious all of a sudden. “It’s going to be hard to cleanse and protect if I don’t have your permission for it. You accepting me makes things <em> much </em> easier.”</p><p>“What’s the catch?” Jongdae asked, <em> knowing </em> there had to be something.</p><p>Demons did not just offer favours for free.</p><p>“No catch. I’m basically offering this all for free, all I ask for is a roof over my head and food, in exchange for making your home the most well-protected house in… All of Seoul, I would chance,” the demon said, giving a bright, <em> rectangular </em> grin.</p><p>What a peculiar smile shape.</p><p>“Nothing about my soul or anything in the fine print?” Jongdae hesitantly asked.</p><p>“Nothing at all, there isn’t even any fine print!” the demon said, holding out a hand towards Jongdae. “A shake of hands to seal the deal, involving nothing more than you housing and feeding me in exchange for my protection!”</p><p>Raising his right hand, Jongdae held it against his chest, still hesitant. “How do I know your protection is actually worth it?”</p><p>Rolling his eyes, the demon used the fingers on his already raised hand to <em> snap </em> - and all of a sudden, Jongdae’s house seemed <em> darker. </em></p><p>“This is stuff left behind by previous owners of the house,” the demon began, motioning around. “This is what you’ve been trying to get rid of, some of it sticking hard enough for you to be unable to get rid of it on your own. I can, though, and I can also make sure to protect your home from <em> unwanted </em> visitors.”</p><p>Another <em> snap </em> , and the faint darkness clouding everything disappeared, leaving Jongdae feeling like he could breathe a bit easier. He had never felt any problems with breathing in the house before, but it was rather as if the demon somehow helped him gain a <em> higher </em> level of breathing in some kind of weird way. As if he cleared away the top few percent that nobody ever really managed to reach, and it honestly felt kind of good.</p><p>And the fact that Jongdae had never felt like that before, told him that the demon was not trying to trick him into believing that there was <em> stuff </em> hanging around that had actually never been there, but that he did what he had said he would - he cleansed.</p><p>“I promise you, I’ll keep everything bad out,” the demon said, once more holding his hand up in offer.</p><p>“Except for yourself,” Jongade mumbled - but he was already reaching for the demon’s hand, grasping it to shake.</p><p>As soon as their skin touched, Jongdae felt a warmth tingle it’s way across his palm and up his arm, spreading across his body. It strengthened as they lifted their clasped hands, and when they brought them down, tiny little sparkly symbols appeared to wrap around their hands.</p><p>“Oh, that’s pretty,” the demon breathed, and Jongdae could do nothing but agree.</p><p>Wrapping tighter, the symbols then sunk into their skin, white-hot flashes searing into flesh and causing them both to hiss, but as soon as the light disappeared into them the pain stopped, and then there was only the nice warmth left, lingering behind even as they released each other’s hands.</p><p>“Nice,” the demon said, grinning as he flexed his hand. “Now I just need to finish the protection, and your house will be safe!”</p><p>“Wait, wasn’t that it?” Jongdae asked in confusion.</p><p>“What, no, of course not,” the demon said with a little chuckle. “That was just us binding together, a part of this all, but I still need to complete the house protection. I need your help, by the way, for that.”</p><p>“Uh, okay? Don’t know how much help I can be, but sure?” Jongdae slowly said, following along as the demon moved towards the entrance hallway, coming to a stop in front of the door.</p><p>“Don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything, I just need a bit of blood from you,” the demon said, and Jongdae <em> immediately </em> took a step back, which the demon noticed. Rolling his eyes, he half-turned and reached out to pull Jongdae closer, using a surprising amount of strength and having Jongdae stumble into him. “Just a few drops, to tie it to you as well, since it’s actually <em> your </em> home and should respond to you too.”</p><p>“Ah, yes, that sounds logical, I guess,” Jongdae mumbled, a bit preoccupied by the feeling of a <em> very </em> firm chest beneath his hands.</p><p>Shit, how long had it been since last he got laid?</p><p>“Sounds logical because it <em> is </em> logical,” the demon said, removing one of Jongdae’s hands from his chest, holding it up between them by Jongdae’s wrist. “Just a quick nick, and then it’ll be over, I promise I won’t hurt you more than that.”</p><p>Elongating a nail into a freaking <em> claw </em>, the demon used it to slice Jongdae’s palm, just a thin line, but deep enough for blood to quickly bead as Jongdae hissed at the pain. Releasing Jongdae, the demon quickly sliced his own palm as well, barely even wincing, before once more grabbing Jongdae and pressing their bleeding palms together.</p><p>“Hey, wait, I don’t even know if you’re clean!” Jongdae exclaimed, unable to keep his mind from running through various blood-borne diseases he now could be infected with. Who knew where demons played around? Who knew what kind of supernatural diseases demons could carry?</p><p>The demon merely snorted and shook his head as he squeezed their hands together a little bit tighter, and then let go, only to press both his own and Jongdae’s hand to the door, in the middle of the little drawing he had made.</p><p>“I’m a demon, I’m naturally resistant to mankind’s diseases, they can’t survive within my body,” the demon said as he slowly dragged their hands down before pulling them away from the wood. “And the few illnesses a demon <em> can </em> contract are mostly magic-based, and I stay <em> far </em> away from those. I’m basically as clean as you can be and don’t have to worry about if <em> you’re </em> clean or not.”</p><p>Feeling his cheeks heat up a little, Jongdae snatched his hand back, since it seemed like he had done what he was required to do.</p><p>“What do you mean worry about <em> me? </em>” Jongdae asked, fighting the instinct to step back.</p><p>The demon turned to Jongdae with a raised eyebrow. “Worry about you being clean for our recent blood exchange, of course, the very same thing you worried about like two seconds ago. Whatever are you thinking about, sweetheart, that has you so flustered?”</p><p>Thankfully, Jongdae was saved from answering something he had no idea how he should answer, by sudden <em> sparkling. </em> Surprised, the both of them turned to look at the door, and the smears of their combined blood. That were sparkling. Very freakily.</p><p>“Huh, that’s interesting…,” the demon slowly said, eyebrows knitted together as he stared at the still-shimmering smear.</p><p>“Why is that interesting?” Jongdae asked, not at all knowing what was going on, and not at all knowing if he liked it.</p><p>“It was just a reaction I didn’t expect,” the demon mumbled, before snapping out of his thoughts and directing a smile towards Jongdae. “Nothing bad, don’t worry.”</p><p>“Mhm…,” Jongdae hummed, still a bit worried. “Not sure I believe you, demon.”</p><p>The demon rolled his eyes, lips pursed into a thin line. “What’s even the point in me telling lies… Also, the name’s Baekhyun, might as well get used to it.”</p><p>“You keep making all of these comments that I don’t know if you mean in a certain way or not,” Jongdae said, narrowing his eyes at <em> Baekhyun. </em></p><p>A playful lopsided grin appeared on the demon’s lips, being coupled with the wiggling of a pair of eyebrows. “I mean, I’m guessing you’ll be screaming my name one way or the other, either in pleasure or exasperation…”</p><p>Jongdae refused to let the shiver travel down his spine at the very suggestive words, but he could only battle his blood <em> so </em> much, sure at least a hint of pink was showing on his cheeks, especially considering the way Baekhyun’s grin widened.</p><p>“I need to clean up this nasty cut, don’t want it to get infected with some weird demonic shit,” Jongdae said instead of acknowledging Baekhyun’s words, turning away from the door.</p><p>“Hey, I told you there’s nothing to worry about!” Baekhyun exclaimed in protest, but Jongdae ignored him.</p><p>Sure, he had said that there was probably nothing to worry about, but Jongdae did not know if that was actually true or not. Maybe the demon got some kind of parasite stuck to him during his summoning from his place to Jongdae’s or something. You never knew, so better safe than sorry!</p><p>“I can’t believe I got myself a pet demon within my first week of living here,” Jongdae mumbled as he moved towards the kitchen, talking mostly to himself. “Honestly would’ve expected a cat… Am not surprised it’s a demon, actually. But wow, a pet already?”</p><p>“Okay, wait, hold up,” Baekhyun said as he got in front of Jongdae, holding up his hands. “Uh, <em> one </em> , I’m not a <em> pet. </em> Two, why a <em> cat </em> , cats are boring? And three, you’re <em> not </em> surprised about a demon?”</p><p>“Aren’t you basically just a demonic guard dog, though?” Jongdae pointed out, raising an eyebrow. “I feed and house you, and you protect my home?”</p><p>Baekhyun opened his mouth to say something, before clicking it close as his eyebrows furrowed.</p><p>“Okay, fine, you’ve got a point, I’ll admit…,” Baekhyun muttered, making Jongdae smile.</p><p>“As for cats being boring, they’re not, they’re <em> independent </em> and easy to deal with, which makes them great pets,” Jongdae continued, holding up two fingers before raising a third. “And no, not actually that surprised by getting myself a demon. Strange shit has happened to me all my life, why do you think I was attempting to cleanse this place?”</p><p>“You keep making fair points, and I don’t know if I like it,” Baekhyun said, but the smile on his lips kind of contradicted his words.</p><p>“Get used to it, dude,” Jongdae deadpanned, before turning towards the sink to tend to his wound.</p><p>“I guess I really have to, huh,” Baekhyun said as he leaned against the counter next to Jongdae. “Speaking of things to get used to, when are we eating? I am <em> starving. </em> Absolutely famished.”</p><p>“Bad segue, but I’ll allow it,” Jongdae said, wincing as he rinsed his fresh wound. “I’m happy you chose my left hand, by the way, makes it easier to be able to do normal stuff without reopening this wound… But how about pizza? That way I don’t need to cook.”</p><p>“Pizza?!” the demon exclaimed, suddenly looking as if Christmas had come early. Did demons celebrate Christmas? Probably not… “Fuck yes, you’ve got a deal!”</p><p>And then Baekhyun grabbed Jongdae’s hand - yet again - bringing it out of the water Jongdae was holding it beneath and up to his face. And then the little shit <em> licked </em> a long stripe across Jongdae’s palm, leaving behind a tingly sensation that Jongdae could not decide was nice or not.</p><p>“<em> Ew </em>, what did you do that for?!” Jongdae half-shrieked, snatching his hand back from the demon, who simply giggled.</p><p>“Pizza in exchange for healing,” Baekhyun smugly said - and looking down at his hand, Jongdae realized that his wound had <em> somehow </em> healed to the point where just a faint pink line remained.</p><p>
  <em> What the shit. </em>
</p><p>“Y-you can’t just go around and lick people to heal them, though!” Jongdae protested. “Even if it is magical saliva you can just suck on your finger or something and then apply it to the wound or whatever!”</p><p>“Nah, it’s not magical saliva, just so much more fun watching you turn flustered,” Baekhyun drawled.</p><p>Not knowing how to react to that, Jongdae simply went with instinct. Jumping on Baekhyun, he pressed his still-wet palm against the demon’s cheek, before dragging it across the demon’s skin as the demon gave a proper shriek and tried to fight Jongdae off.</p><p>At the back of his mind, Jongdae realized that Baekhyun was not fully fighting back, probably for Jongdae’s benefit or because he did not want to accidentally hurt him, but even if it was a fake victory it still felt pretty great to overpower the demon.</p><p>After some wrestling around, they separated, both breathing heavily as they stared at each other. For some reason it just felt so ridiculous to Jongdae - so he just burst out laughing. Baekhyun blinked at him a few times before he too began to laugh, and then they were just standing in Jongdae’s kitchen, laughing at nothing in particular.</p><p>“Okay, okay, pizza for healing?” Jongdae spoke up after he had managed to calm down a little, with Baekhyun nodding as he wiped at an eye. “Fine, fair enough, I’m really hungry now too… Do you have any pizza topping preference?”</p><p> </p><p>Jongdae really should not have asked about preferences. He should just have ordered normal pizza and have been done with it.</p><p>Jongdae had not done that, though. He had asked for preferences, and now he had to watch Baekhyun literally <em> devour </em> the worst topping there was.</p><p>Pineapple.</p><p>“I can’t believe you’re eating that,” Jongdae finally spoke up, unable to take watching Baekhyun stuff his face any more without saying anything about it.</p><p>Baekhyun began to say something, almost spitting half of his food out, before deciding that it was probably better to chew, swallow, and then talk.</p><p>“You don’t know what you’re talking about, you haven’t tasted it,” Baekhyun accused, lifting another slice to point at Jongdae with.</p><p>“Wrong, I have,” Jongdae said, grimacing as he pushed Baekhyun’s hand and slice away from his face. “My best friend loves the shit and tries to get me to taste at least twice a year, and a few times I’ve given in. So I <em> have </em> tasted it, and it’s disgusting.”</p><p>Grumpily pouting, Baekhyun leaned back in the sofa as he began to nibble on his slice. “Can’t believe you have such shitty taste… Pineapple on pizza is <em> great. </em>”</p><p>“It’s really not,” Jongdae said, more like stated, really. “There’s major discussion and fights about it online, actually, and most of the time us Hawaii pizza haters win.”</p><p>Baekhyun narrowed his eyes as he side-eyed Jongdae. “I don’t believe that, you’re probably just saying it to try to trick me into falsely believing that I’m a minority even though I’m not…”</p><p>“Why in the world would I lie to you?” Jongdae asked, blinking his eyes at Baekhyun that hopefully looked at least somewhat innocent.</p><p>From the way Baekhyun snorted, Jongdae suspected it looked sarcastically innocent, but that was fine really.</p><p>“Whatever, just means more pizza for me,” Baekhyun said - before wolfing down another slice, Jongdae mock-retching at the sight and earning a light punch to the shoulder.</p><p>After finishing the food and the movie they were watching, Jongdae decided it was time to clean up after their meal. Surprisingly, Baekhyun nodded and got up immediately to carry his share over to the kitchen, no whines or protests being uttered.</p><p>Was this what it felt like dealing with adults? Jongdae had never experienced that… No, actually, Minseok was very clean about things, but Chanyeol honestly complained enough for the both of them, so it did not count.</p><p>Jongdae did take over in the kitchen, though, after he found Baekhyun standing and looking around all confused. It was understandable to be confused in an unfamiliar place, after all, and hopefully he would learn after watching Jongdae do stuff a few times.</p><p>“By the way, might as well ask now, where am I sleeping?” Baekhyun asked, leaning against the kitchen island and tapping his fingers against the stone slab, as Jongdae stacked the pizza boxes to put into the paper recycling the next day. He really did not feel like going outside right now. “It’s a big house, so might you have a guest room I can use while I’m here?”</p><p>“Well, I don’t really have any bed in the guest room yet, so I hope you don’t mind sleeping on the sofa?” Jongdae said, glancing towards said piece of furniture. “It’s new, so I haven’t had the opportunity to test if it’s good for sleeping, but it’s comfortable enough to sit in?”</p><p>“I don’t think I’ll have any problem with it,” Baekhyun said, a soft smile on his lips.</p><p>“Good, good…,” Jongdae said, nodding to himself. “I think I should have some extra pillows and a cover somewhere too, let me go look. Oh, also, I think there’s an extra, unopened toothbrush in the bathroom next to the kitchen.”</p><p>And with that, Jongdae fled. And he was not ashamed to admit it. He just needed a little bit of time to himself, to gather himself in this mess he had ended up in. He had wanted to do a quick cleanse of his home and ended up with a demon deal. It was honestly a bit laughable, and Jongdae could not help but chuckle and shake his head as he looked through a few boxes for the extras he <em> knew </em> he should have somewhere.</p><p>Having found the pillows and cover, Jongdae headed back downstairs. Baekhyun was sitting on the sofa, one leg pulled up with his arms wrapped around it as he watched the TV, looking like a young twenty-something, not a… However old demon he was.</p><p>“Mind helping me with the sheets?” Jongdae asked as he stepped into the living room, dropping his soft pile in the sofa next to the demon.</p><p>“Of course!” Baekhyun said, quickly getting up.</p><p>Working together - Baekhyun standing in the sofa and Jongdae down on his knees - they soon had the cover done, moving on to the two pillows and doing one each. In no time at all they had transformed Jongdae’s sofa into a temporary bed, and it actually looked somewhat inviting.</p><p>Sliding beneath the cover, Baekhyun wiggled his way down until he was lying properly, cover pulled up to his chin, a pleased smile on his face.</p><p>“Oh, this is nice, this is real nice!” he said, before sighing softly. “Shit, suddenly I got really tired…”</p><p>“How about we go to bed, then?” Jongdae suggested, fighting the urge to yawn but not quite succeeding. “After all the… <em> Excitement </em>, I guess, I’m feeling a bit tired too…”</p><p>“Aw, you think meeting me was exciting?” Baekhyun purred, before yawning as well. But I like your suggestion, we can play more tomorrow…”</p><p>“Play, we’re not going to <em> play </em> ,” Jongdae said - and by now he was suspecting that the demon knew <em> exactly </em> what he was doing when trying, and succeeding, to fluster Jongdae.</p><p>“Oh, get your mind out of the gutter,” Baekhyun snickered, hiding his head beneath the cover as if he was flustered as well. He popped out just a second later, white hair all ruffled. “It’s amazing what kinds of things are hiding beneath that pretty facade…”</p><p>“What do you mean…?” Jongdae slowly asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.</p><p>Baekhyun shrugged as well as he could lying down, the movement just barely visible to Jongdae.</p><p>“That apparently it really is true that the most innocent-looking people are the ones with the dirtiest minds,” Baekhyun answered, quickly continuing as Jongdae began to protest. “Don’t take it as a bad thing, it’s not! Just makes you more fun!”</p><p>“Makes me more fun? What are you talking about?” Jongdae questioned, even though he had an inkling about what the demon was talking about.</p><p>But that did not mean that Jongdae had to acknowledge it, though.</p><p>“Oh, I think you know what I’m talking about… Anyway, we’re supposed to sleep, not rouse, so let’s end this discussion here! Goodnight, Jongdae,” Baekhyun said, smiling brightly up at Jongdae. “I hope you’ll sleep well in your freshly cleansed home!”</p><p>Jongdae could not help himself - reaching out to gently pat Baekhyun’s head before pulling back. The demon was just too cute to stay mad at, and that was a very dangerous ability to possess. “Goodnight, you infuriating demon. Sleep well.”</p><p> </p><p>←～(☆ㅅ☆)Ψ</p><p> </p><p>Jongdae woke up bright and early on Sunday, groaning as he checked his clock and realized it was just after eight. He was getting older, and apparently that meant waking up early even on days when he was off work.</p><p>Knowing that he would not be able to fall asleep again, Jongdae grumbled his way out of bed, trudging down to his kitchen to get some coffee into him. He had become addicted to the dark liquid back in college, in part thanks to a certain tiny hyung, and his job sometimes featuring tight deadlines having him stay up late really did not help either.</p><p>Just the smell of coffee brewing had Jongdae start to feel a bit more awake, and he sighed in content as he finally got the first sip and felt the tendrils of sleepiness start to retreat faster and faster.</p><p>But with the retreating sleepiness, Jongdae felt as if there was something he was forgetting, something kind of important, but he needed some more coffee before he could get rid of the haze and remember…</p><p>Baekhyun stumbling into the kitchen, white hair standing in all directions, had Jongdae startle so bad he almost dropped his cup of coffee. His brain was not awake enough to have remembered about the demon currently living with him, but it was starting to come back.</p><p>“Morning,” Baekhyun mumbled, voice sleep-deepened and a bit rough - as he moved right up to Jongdae and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, making Jongdae almost drop his cup of coffee for a second time in like at most a minute.</p><p>The cup was gone in the next second, though, not because of Jongdae having dropped it, but because of Baekhyun having stolen it. Mind still trying to catch up, Jongdae just watched as the demon took a sip instead of protesting over the stealing and trying to get it back.</p><p>Half a moment later, Baekhyun quickly removed the cup from his lips, grimacing as he did so, sticking out his tongue in what appeared like disgust.</p><p>“Oh, <em> fuck! </em> That’s so nasty, ew!” Baekhyun complained, fake-retching as he forced the cup back into Jongdae’s hands.</p><p>“Hah, serves you right for stealing my coffee,” Jongdae smugly said, taking a sip and humming at the taste.</p><p>“I can’t believe you’re drinking straight up black coffee,” Baekhyun said, still grimacing.</p><p>“It’s not black coffee,” Jongdae said with a little chuckle. “It’s got a splash of milk in it, but a friend of mine kind of accidentally got me into drinking my coffee less fancy. He likes it black, like his soul he says.”</p><p>“Ah, yes, I have a friend like that, too…,” Baekhyun said, eyes turning a bit vacant, before he returned back down to Earth and Jongdae. “So, what’s for breakfast?”</p><p>“I’m not really big on breakfast, at most some rice and whatever I can find in my fridge,” Jongdae said as he headed towards said fridge, pulling the door open. “And… There’s not a lot. Cereals?”</p><p>“Oh, I’ve never had cereals before!” Baekhyun exclaimed, looking a lot more awake.</p><p>“It’s not too special, really, especially not the cereal I have,” Jongdae said as he pulled out the milk before moving towards the cupboard containing said cereal.</p><p>“Let me be the judge of that!” Baekhyun said, starting to look around. “Bowls, we need bowls, right?”</p><p>With Jongdae giving directions, they worked together to have breakfast ready in no time at all, standing leaned against the kitchen island side by side as they ate.</p><p>“This isn’t bad, not bad at all,” Baekhyun mumbled, looking down at his cereals as if he was surprised about how nice they tasted. “Not as good pizza, but it’s hard to top pizza…”</p><p>“It’s not hard to top Hawaii pizza…,” Jongdae muttered, but Baekhyun ignored him.</p><p>“So, what are we doing today?” Baekhyun asked instead, lifting his bowl to drink the last of his milk, making Jongdae wrinkle his nose at the bad table manners.</p><p>“Doing today? I’ve not thought that far ahead yet, I <em> just </em> had my first cup of coffee,” Jongdae answered, deciding to not bother with the last of the milk at the bottom of his bowl.</p><p>“Addicted to coffee to feel alive, that’s not good, sweetheart,” Baekhyun said, tutting as he shook his head, and Jongdae swiped out with his feet to kick at Baekhyun’s shins. “Ouch, you little shit! That hurt!”</p><p>“It was meant to,” Jongdae declared, getting up to both get out of range and take his bowl over to the sink to wash. “How about getting you a proper bed?”</p><p>There was a clank behind him, something Jongdae guessed was Baekhyun’s spoon hitting his bowl, and he turned to look over his shoulder to find Baekhyun staring at him in shock.</p><p>“What?” Jongdae said, raising an eyebrow. “If you’re going to live here you need to have a proper bed, you can’t sleep on the sofa for however long you stay-”</p><p>For sure using some kind of superhuman speed, Baekhyun was suddenly all over Jongdae, giggling in delight</p><p>“I’m getting my own bed!” Baekhyun sing-songed as he rocked them from side to side, nuzzling into Jongdae’s shoulder.</p><p>“You’re even getting your own room, we just need to clear one of them out,” Jongdae said, rather amused by the clingy demon. “I guess that’s another thing we can do today.”</p><p>“I’m getting my own bed <em> and </em> room!” Baekhyun continued to sing-song, moving to pull Jongdae into a chaotic stumble resembling a dance, humming along to an unknown song as they went, Jongdae quickly turning dizzy - but still laughing.</p><p>“Yes, you are, so let’s get ready and then go to see if we can find something comfortable enough for you,” Jongdae said after maybe a minute, needing a break from all the spinning.</p><p>“Oh, okay!” Baekhyun exclaimed, before taking a step back and snapping his fingers - changing his sweats that Jongdae had not even realized he was wearing, into a pair of skintight what appeared to be leather pants, and a suit jacket over a turtleneck.</p><p>“Uh, maybe you should go for something less… <em> Fancy </em>,” Jongdae said before biting down on his lower lip, trying to be as nice as possible with his choice of descriptive word.</p><p>Looking down at his outfit, the demon frowned. “What do you mean? What’s so wrong with this?”</p><p>“You look like a vampire cosplayer and I’m not going to walk around out in public with you looking like that,” Jongdae replied, thinking that maybe it was better to be brutally honest.</p><p>“Isn’t that kinda hot, though?” Baekhyun asked, smiling a crooked grin and flashing a hint of fang - and suddenly Jongdae had a bit of problem with swallowing. “But fine, whatever, you probably know better what’s acceptable or not. Is this better?”</p><p>With another snap of his fingers, Baekhyun changed outfit once more, this time going for more relaxed street fashion. He had looked somewhat gothic hot in his previous outfit, but now he looked effortlessly handsome in that way that turned heads.</p><p>“Much better, yeah,” Jongdae managed, starting to move out of the kitchen. “I can’t do your neat little trick, so I’ll just go change <em> manually </em> and wash up a bit…”</p><p>“Okay, I’ll be waiting in the living room!” Baekhyun brightly said, heading in that direction as Jongdae headed towards the stairs.</p><p> </p><p>Twenty minutes later, they were finally getting into Jongdae’s car</p><p>“You know, I’ve never been in a car before,” Baekhyun said, sounding a bit too excited about it. “This is a really fancy car, though!”</p><p>“You’ve never been in a car before, but you still think my car is fancy?” Jongdae said with a snort as he buckled himself in. “You have no frame of reference for fancy or not? Also, put your seatbelt on, safety first.”</p><p>“I’m an immortal being, seatbelt or not I’ll survive a car crash,” Baekhyun tutted - but he did as asked.</p><p>“Still, hard to explain you being all fine after having been catapulted out through the windshield,” Jongdae pointed out as he started the car.</p><p>“You’re making a good point, I’ll have to admit,” Baekhyun conceded. “You’re a smart one, aren’t you?”</p><p>“Some people claim that,” Jongdae mumbled absentmindedly, a bit more focused on backing out of his driveway without running someone or something over than the conversation at hand.</p><p>“That’s not very humble,” Baekhyun chuckled, making Jongdae smile as well as he put the car into gear.</p><p>“I never said I claim that myself, just other people, and they do,” Jongdae said. “Do you know how to use a phone?”</p><p>“Not in the least, but <em> other people claim </em> I’m a quick learner,” Baekhyun answered. “Why?”</p><p>Picking up his phone that he had put in the center console, Jongdae held it out for Baekhyun to take. “Because we need to look up a place that’s currently open that sells beds, and I forgot to do it before we left. And I don’t want to get pulled over for using my phone while driving.”</p><p>Glancing over at the demon, Jongdae found him frowning as he was turning the phone over, looking at various things.</p><p>“How… Do I do this, then?” Baekhyun slowly asked, and Jongdae could not help but snicker at the clueless tone.</p><p>“If you press the button on the right side, the screen will turn on,” Jongdae began to instruct. “Like that, exactly, and then you need to swipe up and you’ll get to another screen asking you to input a code. I can unlock with my fingerprint, but you need to have a code to get in, and that code is 2112.”</p><p>“Seems risky to give me access to your phone, but aight,” Baekhyun mumbled, and Jongdae glanced over to see the demon slowly input the numbers - by using his forefinger. It was a long time since last he saw someone do it like that… Even Junmyeon had learned how to use his thumbs quite a while ago.</p><p>“I have a very well-protected phone with intricate passwords for the important bits,” Jongdae said. “I work in tech, so it’s a given.”</p><p>“Oh, in <em> tech </em>, how fancy-pancy,” Baekhyun said with a snort. “Now what am I supposed to do?”</p><p>It took some time, but Jongdae managed to guide Baekhyun out onto the web.</p><p>“Wait, I recognize this…,” Baekhyun said, and glancing over, Jongdae found him smiling. “Is this where you found the summoning ritual?”</p><p>“Ah, I didn’t realize I’d forgotten to close that tab… But yeah, it is,” Jongdae confirmed.</p><p>“I can’t believe you have this at the ready, in the very palm of your hand,” Baekhyun said with a snicker, and out of the corner of his eye Jongdae saw the demon shake his head. “Too much power too easily accessible, this is dangerous, dearest Dae. You used to have to find a special book to be able to do a summoning. Anyway, I’m supposed to do something else?”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, uh, you see at the top, there’s a string of letters?” Jongdae said.</p><p>“Hm, the <em> ‘wiccanvixen.com/easy-cleanses-’ </em> and then I can’t see any more? That’s an interesting name, though…”</p><p>“Yes, exactly, that one, if you click on the letters you’ll get a keyboard pop up so you can input something else,” Jongdae instructed. “Write ‘i k e a’ and then press the little button in the lower right corner that says ‘Go’.”</p><p>Baekhyun did as told - still using his forefinger - making a noise of success after a second, Jongdae assuming it to be because of Google loading for him.</p><p>“Okay, if you scroll down you’ll get to a map showing various red dots and a list of locations. Can you see which one is closest to us? We should be a blue dot on the map.”</p><p>Baekhyun hummed for a few seconds, looking intensely focused the few times Jongdae looked over at him, before making a sound of triumph all of a sudden.</p><p>“I found it! Goyang-si!”</p><p>“Great job! Now, does it say ‘Directions’ anywhere next to the location?”</p><p>“Uh, yes!”</p><p>“Okay, click on it, and it should switch apps for you.”</p><p>“Hm, yes, I think it just did? I got another map now.”</p><p>“Is it showing you a long blue line across the map? If it does, there should be a button at the bottom that says ‘Start’, click on it.”</p><p>Baekhyun seemed to have found the right button, because in the next moment the female robotic voice of the GPS filled the car - making Baekhyun almost drop the phone.</p><p>“Ah, what the fuck!” the demon exclaimed, a slight tremor to his voice, and Jongdae really could not help himself.</p><p>He burst out laughing.</p><p>“Sorry, sorry!” he gasped as he began to calm down, having caught a glance of a very mean glare directed his way. “It was just so funny… Prepare yourself, she’ll talk more as we drive.”</p><p>As if on cue, the robotic woman spoke up again, and Jongdae followed her instructions.</p><p>“What the fuck is this?” Baekhyun asked after the GPS had finished, holding the phone some way away from himself but still hesitantly looking over it.</p><p>“It’s called a GPS, it gives me directions to wherever I want to go,” Jongdae explained. “It’s basically a navigator I can carry with me in my pocket.”</p><p>“These things really give y’all too much power…,” Baekhyun muttered, making Jongdae give a bit more restrained laughter this time around. “What’s so wrong with <em> maps? </em>”</p><p>“That contains maps of at least most places of the world, and it’s easier than having to carry an entire bag filled with paper,” Jongdae pointed out. “Makes your life incredibly much easier, I promise.”</p><p>“Still though…,” Baekhyun petulantly said, having Jongdae reach out to pat his knee. “What now, then?”</p><p>“Now we drive and follow GPS lady’s instructions,” Jongdae said, flashing Baekhyun a quick smile. “If you want I’ll give you permission to turn on the radio.”</p><p> </p><p>By the time they arrived at Ikea, Jongdae’s ears were… Not in the best of shape. Baekhyun had told the truth, and since radio was so repetitive, it did not take him long to learn at least parts of the lyrics of the songs being played.</p><p>Thankfully, the demon had a pretty nice voice, which truly was a blessing in disguise. Jongdae might have throttled him had he not.</p><p>“Holy shit, this is such a big building…,” Baekhyun mumbled as they got out of the car and headed towards the entrance still a bit away, the parking a bit more packed than Jongdae had anticipated.</p><p>“It has to be, it contains stuff for basically all rooms you could have in a house,” Jongdae said, grabbing Baekhyun by the arm to keep him walking to the side and not out into the traffic. It was a bit like dealing with a child, so curious about everything and not thinking about its own safety. “Plus a bit more, really… Come on, let’s go, I don’t like big crowds so let’s get this over with as quickly as possible.”</p><p>“Don’t worry, I’m here to protect you,” Baekhyun said, hooking his arm around Jongdae’s and puffing his chest out. “It’s what I’m here to do, and I never go back on a promise or deal.”</p><p>“If you do well, I might buy you lunch in the cafeteria inside,” Jongdae suggested - and all of a sudden they were walking <em> much </em> faster, Baekhyun looking ten times more excited.</p><p>With the offered shortcuts, it did not take them long to reach the bedroom area - where Baekhyun came to a stop, mouth dropped open in shock.</p><p>“There’s… There’s so many <em> beds?! </em> ” he exclaimed in a hushed voice, turning to Jongdae with a slightly scared look in his eyes. “What the <em> shit? </em>”</p><p>“And you’re here to find one you like,” Jongdae pointed out, getting a quiet whimper in return.</p><p>“How am I supposed to do that when offered all of <em> this? </em>” Baekhyun asked, motioning towards the various beds standing around the large area.</p><p>“Well, first of all you can try a few of them to see if you have a preference for a certain mattress, and then we can work from there?” Jongdae suggested, before gently pushing at Baekhyun. “Go forth, young demon, and try those beds out!”</p><p>Glancing at Jongdae one last time, Baekhyun then slowly made his way over to the closest bed. Hesitantly, he sat down on it, and bounced a few times.</p><p>“You can lie down, you know, that’s why they have the protections across the end of the bed,” Jongdae said, motioning towards the plastic sheet there to prevent dirty shoes from staining the beds.</p><p>It took Baekhyun a few mattresses to really start to get into it, and when he did, things went a lot smoother and quicker, until Baekhyun finally laid down on one bed, closed his eyes, and let out a pleased sigh that had his body relax fully.</p><p>“This one, this is it,” he mumbled, sounding as if he was half-asleep already. “Shit, it feels like I’m lying on a cloud or something…”</p><p>Chuckling softly, Jongdae pulled out his phone to take a photo of the shelf number and code. “Now you just need to decide on a bed frame, but you don’t have to try them out, you can just look at them and decide.”</p><p>Bemoaning having to leave the <em> wonderful </em> bed he was currently in, Baekhyun dragged himself up onto his feet, before starting to look around.</p><p>“That one,” Baekhyun said, pointing in a direction, and Jongdae spun around.</p><p>“Which one, there’s too many in here to just <em> point- </em>” Jongdae began, not getting any more words out before he was being dragged over towards the bed frame Baekhyun had almost instantly picked out.</p><p>At least he was not <em> too </em> picky.</p><p>The bed frame Baekhyun stopped in front of was a simple grey metal frame, featuring a headboard curving up and over the bed, five thinner metal pieces going from the base and up to the pipe forming the top of the headboard.</p><p>“You sure this is the one you want?” Jongdae asked, because he honestly was a bit surprised by the selection. It seemed a bit <em> too </em> simple for the demon, Jongdae could not help but think.</p><p>“Positive, it looks fun,” Baekhyun said, grinning widely - and then something clicked in Jongdae’s brain.</p><p>It would probably be pretty hard to break away from a headboard like that…</p><p>“Okay, fine, your choice,” Jongdae hurried to say, clearing his throat as he stepped up to take a photo of the product details. “Come on, let’s get you some new pillows and cover, too, might as well!”</p><p>With that, Jongdae turned and quickly made his way towards the part of the department containing all of the stuff that went on the bed, hearing the demon laugh behind him as he followed.</p><p>“Why are you suddenly so <em> flustered </em>, my sweet Dae?” Baekhyun asked as he caught up, slinging an arm around Jongdae’s shoulders. “Was it something I said? Something implied? Or was it just your dirty little mind dropping into the gutter?”</p><p>“It was nothing, nothing at all,” Jongdae denied, pushing the now-giggling demon away from him. “And if you don’t drop it I won’t buy any meatballs for you!”</p><p>“Wait, what are meatballs?” Baekhyun asked as he sidled up to Jongdae’s side again, impishness now exchanged for curiosity.</p><p>“Swedish food, one of the reasons Ikea’s cafeteria is a bit legendary,” Jongdae answered, happy to steer things away from previous topics. “Basically minced meat rolled into balls, but for some reason they taste incredibly good.”</p><p>“Oh, how exciting! I can’t wait!” Baekhyun exclaimed, clapping his hands together like the child he was.</p><p>Picking out pillows and a cover went by pretty fast, and Jongdae could not help but wonder if Baekhyun rushed through it to get the food quicker. Whatever, it was not as if it would affect Jongdae in the end anyway. At most he might get some whining, but he could easily point out that it was not his fault, so.</p><p>Done with that, Jongdae led Baekhyun over towards the Ikea cafeteria, putting away their bag with stuff in the indicated area before dragging Baekhyun with him to queue up.</p><p>“So, you can see the food you can order up there,” Jongdae began, pointing towards the large posters hanging over the kitchen part. “We’ll get drinks too, and there’s even dessert if you want something after finishing the food.”</p><p>“Oh, you’re <em> spoiling </em> me, Dae,” Baekhyun purred, latching on to Jongdae’s arm and pressing up against him, rubbing his cheek against Jongdae’s shoulder and sighing. “I <em> love </em> it, I feel so appreciated!”</p><p>“I’m happy you do,” Jongdae said with a chuckle, patting Baekhyun’s head. “Oh, you need to let go now, we’ve reached the starting point.”</p><p>It was honestly rather amusing, directing Baekhyun through the food queue, telling him what to do and see him do it - see him light up whenever he did stuff right. To Jongdae it seemed like such easy things to do, but Baekhyun really did not have a clue to it. He did watch, though, the ones going before them, and tried to copy them, Jongdae noticed. Mimicking and somewhat adapting, and maybe Baekhyun had been right about learning quickly.</p><p>The best part, though, was when the kitchen worker asked Baekhyun what he wanted to eat.</p><p>“The legendary meatballs, please!” Baekhyun said, giving one of the brightest smiles Jongdae had seen so far, and flustering the poor kitchen worker to the point of blushing.</p><p>“Y-yes, sir,” the woman said, and Jongdae felt so bad for her when she began to pile the food of her part of the station, hands trembling slightly. She almost looked relieved when she moved the plate to the next kitchen worker, and Jongdae understood her.</p><p>So when the kitchen worker turned to Jongdae, he offered her a comforting, slightly more subdued smile instead as he gave his order, and he was pretty sure the kitchen worker let out a little sigh of relief as she began working on his plate.</p><p>After getting their food and paying, they sat down at a table and began to eat.</p><p>“Oh my <em> devil </em> , these are so good!” Baekhyun actually <em> moaned </em> , and Jongdae promptly choked on his food. “Why have I never had meatballs before? <em> How </em> can they be this good?”</p><p>“It’s some kind of Scandinavian magic, I guess,” Jongdae answered after having taken a sip and managed to properly swallow.</p><p>“I love Scandinavia, should visit some time,” Baekhyun mumbled, before stuffing his mouth full, causing Jongdae to shake his head at the demon.</p><p>Baekhyun did his little moaning deal with the dessert too - a piece of chocolate mudcake - but this time around Jongdae was a bit more prepared, simply sighing and shielding his eyes, as if to signal that he did not know the silly demon sitting across from him. He was not sure if he was fooling anyone - but he also very much hoped that no one had heard the sounds Baekhyun made.</p><p>After their lunch, they picked up their bag of wares again, and then headed back out into the large store. And maybe Jongdae indulged Baekhyun a bit, not rushing him along but letting the curious demon explore various things.</p><p>“It’s so <em> sparkly! </em>” Baekhyun reverently exclaimed, stars in his eyes as he gazed upon the various crystal chandeliers hanging in the lights department.</p><p>“You’re <em> not </em> getting a crystal chandelier,” Jongdae declared, shaking his head and crossing his arms over his chest as Baekhyun <em> pouted </em> at him. “ <em> No way in hell. </em>”</p><p>“I’d totally get one of these in hell…,” Baekhyun muttered, before Jongdae pulled him along towards the exit, fearing what would happen if they stayed surrounded by the lamps for longer.</p><p>Baekhyun almost fell over, craning his head back to be able to look up to find the top of the giant shelves containing various furniture, as they made their way towards the check-out. Jongdae was rather amused by it as he yet again grabbed the demon by the arm and steered him to keep him from getting hurt.</p><p>“This is so <em> big </em> , does it have to be so <em> big? </em> ” Baekhyun questioned, and Jongdae was pretty sure he heard a <em> ‘that’s what she said’ </em> from somewhere behind him, giving a snort-chuckle. When Baekhyun looked over at him in confusion, Jongdae just shook his head.</p><p>Going through the self-scan, Jongdae allowed Baekhyun to wield the scanner, and the demon seemed to have the time of his life as he played around and scanned the barcodes. After getting a stern look from one of the workers overlooking the self-scan area, Jongdae gave an apologetic bow, before forcing Baekhyun to stop playing around, and then quickly paid for their stuff before herding Baekhyun towards the exit and the car.</p><p>“We’re not bringing the bed with us home?” Baekhyun asked, clearly confused from the way his eyebrows tilted upwards. He honestly looked a bit like a puppy, and when the demon tilted his head to the side as well, Jongdae almost cooed out loud.</p><p>“Do you think it would fit into my car?” Jongdae said with a smile.</p><p>Baekhyun pursed his lips before slowly shaking his head. “I guess not, no…”</p><p>“Don’t worry, you’ll get a bed, we’ll order it and have it delivered,” Jongdae explained as he unlocked the car, putting the things they actually purchased into the trunk.</p><p>“Oh, you can do that?” Baekhyun questioned as he walked around the car and got in as Jongdae did as well.</p><p>“Convenience and comfort, keywords for humanity,” Jongdae joked as he put the key into the ignition and strapped himself in.</p><p>“I mean, those <em> are </em> some good keywords to have, lazy is nice,” Baekhyun said, relaxing back in his seat and closing his eyes. “This was <em> exhausting </em>, to be honest…”</p><p>“Yeah, full agreement on that,” Jongdae said with a little sigh, not enjoying being out in large crowds for too long, before starting the car. “Let’s go home, where we can relax and rest.”</p><p>“Aw, you said ‘let’s go home’,” Baekhyun cooed. “I’ve not even been here for a day, and you’re already seeing me as a part of your home? Cute!”</p><p>“Maybe I said it because it’s <em> my </em> home,” Jongdae pointed out, willing his cheeks to cool down.”</p><p>“Nah, that’s too boring, let’s go with my conclusion instead,” Baekhyun said, and out of the corner of his eye, Jongdae saw the demon wiggle in his seat as if to make himself more comfortable. “You want me to summon the demon lady again?”</p><p>“The demon lady?” Jongdae questioned, rather confused. Which demon lady had they summoned once before? Because Jongdae was pretty sure he had only ever summoned one being - Baekhyun. Was Baekhyun talking about himself and someone else?</p><p>“The GPS lady,” Baekhyun grumbled, making Jongdae laugh.</p><p>“Yes please, if you’d kindly summon the evil GPS lady, that would be great,” Jongdae said, handing his phone over to Baekhyun. “I’ll allow you access to the radio for your troubles. Do you remember how you did it last time?”</p><p>“I think so,” Baekhyun slowly said, starting to mess around with Jongdae’s phone.</p><p>Baekhyun <em> did </em> remember most of it, just needing help a few times, and for some reason Jongdae felt a bit proud about the other’s progress.</p><p>In no time at all, they were pulling up to the driveway, and this time Jongdae’s ears had suffered a little less. The more of the lyrics Baekhyun learned, the less did he belt out high notes to hide the fact that he did not know the words, and Jongdae was thankful for his ability to learn things quickly.</p><p>“Hey, can I take a nap before we clean out the guest room?” Baekhyun asked as they stepped inside, stretching and yawning, and Jongdae pretended he did not see the sliver of skin being exposed by the demon’s shirt riding up. “This is the most I’ve moved in… A <em> very </em> long time, can’t even remember when.”</p><p>“Wait, what?” Jongdae questioned, looking Baekhyun up and down. “But you’re… Well-trained?”</p><p>Because Jongdae still remembered the feeling of Baekhyun’s chest beneath his hands, and that was <em> not </em> the pectoral of someone who had barely moved in however long it had been.</p><p>“Demon privileges, sweetheart,” Baekhyun said with a crooked grin, patting his stomach, before his grin fell. “Though my stamina is for sure ruined, so I’ll have to work on that…”</p><p>“Go take a nap,” Jongdae ordered, pointing towards the sofa and keeping his mind purposefully blank.</p><p>“Oh, yes, sir,” Baekhyun simpered, giving a mock salute as he bit his lip, spinning around and making his way over towards his temporary bed before Jongdae could come up with something to say.</p><p>Huffing a little, Jongdae dropped the bag he was carrying - why was he carrying it in the first place, it contained stuff for the demon for god’s sake - by the sofa, before picking up his laptop and heading into the kitchen. He figured he could give Baekhyun an hour or so to nap, and take care of some things as he did.</p><p>Like ordering Baekhyun’s new bed.</p><p> </p><p>Not quite an hour later, Baekhyun was the one walking into the kitchen, draping himself over Jongdae’s back and scaring the living heck out of him.</p><p>“Whatchu doin’?” Baekhyun slurred, literally hanging over Jongdae’s shoulders.</p><p>“Working,” Jongdae answered, saving thrice before exiting the program. “And I ordered your bed before, it’ll hopefully be here on Tuesday or Wednesday.”</p><p>“M’kay,” Baekhyun mumbled, pressing his forehead against Jongdae’s shoulder before standing up straight. “Let’s get to cleaning, then, so I’ll have somewhere to put it?”</p><p>“Yeah, let’s do that,” Jongdae said as he closed the lid of his laptop and stood up, giving a silent sigh.</p><p>He really did not look forwards to cleaning out the guest room… It was a mess, honestly, Jongdae having hid away things in there until he could take care of it. At least he had another <em> being </em> to help him.</p><p>Maybe not so surprisingly, it took a lot less effort and time for them to clear out the room. It had a lot to do with the fact that Baekhyun seemingly could carry a lot without getting tired, which Jongdae guessed had something to do with him being a demon.</p><p>Apparently demons really came in handy for other things than protection, too.</p><p>“You really have a lot of shit,” Baekhyun pointed out about halfway into their cleaning.</p><p>“And I got rid of some stuff as I moved, too,” Jongdae snickered, taking a breather. “I ran out of time, though, so I’m going to go through all of this and decide on what to keep… Sometime.”</p><p>“Another day, very much not today,” Baekhyun deadpanned, making Jongdae burst out into a proper laugh, before agreeing with the demon.</p><p>It was already dark, and had been for some time, when they finally finished and got the room into some semblance of order. Together, they stumbled down the stairs and into the living room, heading for the sofa.</p><p>Jongdae had not noticed before that Baekhyun had folded the cover up and placed the pillows on top of it, creating a neat little pile, but he was grateful for it. It meant he could collapse without worrying.</p><p>“We’re ordering in, I’m way too tired to cook,” Jongdae complained, splaying across the sofa.</p><p>“You’re just lazy,” Baekhyun teased, dropping down on the opposite end of the sofa. “What are we eating today, then?”</p><p>“Have you ever had Chinese?” Jongdae questioned, lifting his head to look over at Baekhyun - watching as the demon’s eyes began to sparkle.</p><p> </p><p>←～(☆ㅅ☆)Ψ</p><p> </p><p>With Monday came Jongdae having to go back to work, and he did not go too willingly. It was not that he disliked his job - he enjoyed it a lot, to be honest - but the fact that he was leaving Baekhyun all to his own device for a few hours. And it was not quite that he did not <em> trust </em> Baekhyun… Because Jongdae did, to some degree at least. But Jongdae felt bad about leaving Baekhyun on his own without much to do, really.</p><p>“It’s fine, don’t worry about me,” Baekhyun had said that morning over breakfast, just a slight sleepy slur to his voice, even though his eyes were barely even opened. “I’ll figure something out, I always do. Surprisingly you can get really bored in hell, so, got experience.”</p><p>Jongdae had laughed at that, not in the least surprised that hell got boring, actually.</p><p>And then Jongdae had gotten ready for work before heading out. He had been stopped by Baekhyun by the door, though, the demon wishing him a good day with a quick pat on his butt. Jongdae had managed to get out a <em> ‘thank you’ </em> even as he struggled to fight down his fluster, almost sprinting over to his car to be able to hide for a moment.</p><p>As per usual when you could not wait for the day to be over, work dragged on for way too long for Jongdae, and he honestly did not get too much work done, a bit distracted. Even Junmyeon complained about Jongdae’s lack of interest as they had lunch together, and Junmyeon was infamous for being too distracted to get through a lunch without tuning out at least thrice.</p><p>Jongdae only felt slightly bad about leaving half an hour early, making his way out quickly and as stealthily as possible to avoid co-workers and questions. Maybe he could say it was to beat the rush hour if anyone managed to catch him?</p><p>Nobody caught him, though, and Jongdae did <em> not </em> avoid the rush hour as he got a sudden idea and decided to take a detour, ending up arriving at home around the same time as he would on a normal day. But Jongdae was pretty sure it was going to be worth it.</p><p>“Hello?” Jongdae called out as he stepped inside of his house, putting down his bag.</p><p>Immediately, he heard the sound of footsteps quickly padding closer, Baekhyun himself soon appearing and getting all up in Jongdae’s space.</p><p>“Welcome home, sweetie, how was work?” Baekhyun asked, pressing a kiss to Jongdae’s cheek as he helped Jongdae out of his jacket.</p><p>Feeling a bit flustered, it took Jongdae a moment to answer.</p><p>“Um, fine…?” he slowly said, before managing to lift his still jacket-trapped arm. “I brought dinner?”</p><p>It was rather amusing to watch the way Baekhyun’s droopy eyes widened, filling with even more sparkles, as he caught sight of the bag, Giving an excited little giggle and clapping his hands, Baekhyun snatched the bag from Jongdae and did an excited little wiggle towards the kitchen, leaving Jongdae standing with his jacket still in the crooks of his elbows, staring after the dancing demon.</p><p>“Come on, dear Dae, or the food’s going to go cold!” Baekhyun called out, snapping Jongdae out of his light daze and having him shake his head as he gave a disbelieving little laugh, before getting his outerwear off and joining his demon for dinner.</p><p>Yeah, it had been worth it.</p><p> </p><p>←～(☆ㅅ☆)Ψ</p><p> </p><p>Jongdae had never planned on getting himself a roommate after buying himself a house. Not only did he not need one, but he also did not feel like sharing this new space with anyone.</p><p>Until he found someone he wanted to share not only his space but also his heart with, of course. But that was a whole other deal.</p><p>Living with Baekhyun for roommate was honestly not too bad at all, though. He might be loud at times, completely lack respect for personal space, and ask way too many questions when watching stuff - but he was also funny, thoughtful in his own sometimes weird way, and <em> supposedly </em> protecting Jongdae. All in all - not too bad.</p><p>He was also <em> strong </em>, which helped greatly whenever Jongdae got deliveries that required a bit more than he himself could handle. And sometimes probably more than Jongdae could handle even with the help of Chanyeol and Minseok, even if they were free to help.</p><p>Not that Jongdae had asked them for help. For some reason, he was a bit hesitant about inviting them back to his house, knowing that he would need to introduce Baekhyun to them then, and not quite knowing how to do that. They knew that Jongdae had no plans of getting a roommate, and would for sure suspect that Baekhyun was <em> more </em> than just a roommate. And it was not as if Jongdae could just <em> tell </em> them what Baekhyun really was - Jongdae’s demonic guard dog. That had to go against some kind of rule, though Jongdae had not asked about that.</p><p>Not that it would matter for that much longer, anyway, it was just a matter of time before either or both would come by - and it would be one hell of a visit.</p><p>It was a Friday afternoon, and it was time for another delivery. This one was a <em> bit </em> more anticipated, though, for Jongdae. He had been looking forwards to this one for a long time, after all.</p><p>“<em> Fuck </em>, who knew pianos were so heavy!” Baekhyun gasped out after collapsing to the floor, starfishing completely.</p><p>Jongdae, who had been thanking the delivery guy for his help and fetching the piano bench, snorted as he made his way back into the living room.</p><p>“Oh, shut it, you absolutely used your powers or whatever to make it less heavy!” Jongdae said, putting the bench down and then putting himself down on it. Placing his elbows on his knees, he leaned forwards, face directly above Baekhyun’s. “See, you’re not even sweating.”</p><p>Peeking one eye open, Baekhyun looked up at Jongdae. “I actually didn’t help us along in the beginning, I wanted to see how heavy it <em> actually </em> was, which was obviously a mistake. Do you play?”</p><p>“Why do you think I got myself a piano if I can’t <em> play </em> the piano?” Jongdae asked, sitting up straight and turning around to face his brand new piano.</p><p>Sighing in content, Jongdae traced his fingers over the fallboard, before lifting it to uncover the keys. They looked so pretty, all shiny and new, Jongdae almost not wanting to touch them just so he could keep them looking as brand new as they were.</p><p>Suddenly, a chin landed on his shoulder and two hands on his waist, but Jongdae was so used to the clinginess by now that he did not even flinch.</p><p>“Tech guy <em> and </em> piano player? You must be fucking <em> brilliant </em> with your fingers, huh,” Baekhyun murmured right into Jongdae’s ear.</p><p>Jongdae laughed softly even as a shiver traveled down his spine, shrugging lightly enough to not dislodge Baekhyun.</p><p>“Don’t know about that, I haven’t played in a while, probably pretty rusty,” Jongdae said, willfully ignoring the rest of Baekhyun’s statement.</p><p>“Don’t believe you, you’re probably great, mad talented and everything,” Baekhyun said, giving a little sigh just for the heck of it and making Jongdae’s smile widen.</p><p>“I’m really not, I barely have a wide enough finger-span to properly reach all keys, and still struggle with some reaches,” Jongdae said, holding up his hands in front of himself to look at them. They were not tiny, but they were on the smaller side, and for a big part of his teenage years he had been a bit self-conscious about them. “You probably would reach comfortably, though, with your fingers.”</p><p>Baekhyun’s hands disappeared from Jongdae’s waist to instead reappear in front of his face, side by side with Jongdae’s hands. The difference was not dramatic, but it was noticeable.</p><p>“Maybe we’ll see if that’s true one day, but for now you should play,” Baekhyun said, voice somewhat hushed as he gently grabbed Jongdae’s hands and put them down on the shiny new keys. “I’m ready to be amazed.”</p><p>Jongdae snorted, because Baekhyun really did have too much faith in him. It had been years since he did more than just sit by a piano and press random keys, or run a quick little melody, way too long for Jongdae to feel any kind of confidence in his ability. He had been pretty decent back in the day, and he just hoped that maybe his muscle memory still remembered <em> some </em> of it.</p><p>Closing his eyes and then taking a breath, Jongdae started with something easy. A song he had been taught at the beginning of his piano lessons, a quick and fun little thing that had been hammered into him to the point of actually having dreams featuring it when he was younger. He had absolutely hated it - but he still did remember most of it.</p><p>Starting to feel a bit more comfortable as more and more was coming back to him, Jongdae moved on to slightly harder pieces, not even realizing that he was humming along until Baekhyun pointed it out to him.</p><p>“A lovely voice too, bet you’re good at singing,” Baekhyun murmured, causing Jongdae to stop playing as he looked over at the demon in surprise. “You really are one hell of a catch, aren’t you.”</p><p>Baekhyun was looking at him with an incredibly tender look in his eyes, and Jongdae <em> knew. </em> Jongdae knew before Baekhyun was even moving, he knew what was about to happen.</p><p>And Jongdae closed his eyes just as a gentle hand cupped his cheek, not even a breath before soft lips landed on his own.</p><p>It was a very sweet kiss, much sweeter than Jongdae had really anticipated, barely any moving at all and honestly rather chaste. There was a taste of hesitance to it, too, as if Baekhyun was a bit unsure - all in all just very sweet.</p><p>The kiss did not last for long before Baekhyun was pulling back again, still keeping his hand on Jongdae’s cheek, still staying so close.</p><p>“I like you, Kim Jongdae. I like you a whole lot.”</p><p>Jongdae was at a loss for words, not knowing what to say, not knowing what to <em> feel. </em> He had not thought about feelings in regards to Baekhyun, not really. He knew that he had a soft spot for the demon, but that was as much as he knew, as deep as he had gone in his own feelings. And, honestly, it was as far as he had allowed himself to go, mostly out of fear of what he might find and what that would mean. Because, depending on things, that might mean Jongdae putting himself up for possible heartbreak yet again, and he was a bit cautious about doing that.</p><p>Slowly, Baekhyun’s hand slipped from Jongdae’s cheek, and Jongdae could not help but miss the warm feeling of skin against skin. He should probably say something now, instead of just sit and stare at Baekhyun all stupidly.</p><p>“I-I… I don’t know what I feel for you…,” Jongdae mumbled, figuring that he should be honest with Baekhyun. That he owed him that much, at least.</p><p>Baekhyun nodded at that, as if it had been expected. “That’s fine. Maybe I should’ve told you first before kissing you, sorry…”</p><p>“Don’t apologize, that’s not…,” Jongdae began, before trailing off, not knowing if he should continue the sentence with <em> ‘I don’t mind’ </em> or if he did not actually mean that and just wanted to comfort Baekhyun. “You don’t have to apologize. I just need some time to think, I, uh, think?”</p><p>“Yeah, right, of course! Thinking is good, you should do that,” Baekhyun hurried to say, and the awkward atmosphere intensified around them.</p><p>Clearing his throat and feeling the blush still very present on his cheeks, Jongade looked down at his piano, pressing a few random keys and having some notes echo in the otherwise silent living room. He wanted to disperse this weird atmosphere, but he did not know how to…</p><p>Suddenly, Baekhyun reached out to press on a single key too, making Jongdae glance over at him as it rang out.</p><p>“How about some dinner? I’m starving after having to move this hellish piano,” Baekhyun suggested, giving Jongdae a soft smile.</p><p>“Dinner sounds good,” Jongdae agreed with a nod, managing a smile back.</p><p>“Come on, then, time to feed me,” Baekhyun said, holding out a hand to help Jongdae up from the bench.</p><p>It was obvious that he was going back to the more playful talking for Jongdae’s sake, to keep up the pretense that nothing had happened - at least until Jongdae had gotten the chance to think things through. And Jongdae appreciated it, getting a sense of normalcy to cling to as his mind was still trying to catch up.</p><p>Suddenly, the door slammed open, being followed by a call of his name, and Jongdae startled. He had barely started to turn towards the sudden noise when Baekhyun cried out in pain, collapsing to the floor and curling in on himself.</p><p>“Jongdae!” <em> Minseok </em> called out as he suddenly appeared in the living room, but Jongdae did not have the brain capacity to wonder what the shit the other was doing in his house, obviously kicking doors in and screaming his name, not when Baekhyun was still writhing in pain, arms wrapped around himself.</p><p>“Baekhyun, hey, what’s going on?” Jongdae worriedly asked as he got down on his knees next to Baekhyun, hands awkwardly hovering over the demon’s back, unsure if he could touch or not.</p><p>“Wait, <em> Baekhyun? </em> ” Minseok asked, and when Jongdae glanced up, he realized that Minseok was staring at Baekhyun with a lot of surprise - but in that kind of <em> ‘I recognize you’ </em> kind of way.</p><p>“Ah, fuck…,” Baekhyun rasped, a bead of sweat running down his temple. “Why so violent, hyung, it <em> hurts! </em>”</p><p>“Because there was an unfamiliar barrier around my friend’s house and I was worried!” Minseok exclaimed, coming closer and kneeling down in front of Baekhyun, and Jongdae was so very confused.</p><p>Baekhyun let out a strained little chuckle, peeking an eye open to squint up at Minseok. “Hurts a bit that, too, hyung, I’m unfamiliar to you now?”</p><p>“I’m sorry, excuse me, do you <em> know </em> each other?” Jongdae butted in as soon as he managed to find his voice, glancing between Baekhyun and Minseok. “And <em> what </em> is going on?”</p><p>“Well, I only partially kind of know what’s going on…,” Minseok slowly said, looking over at Jongdae. “But yes, we do know each other. Jongdae-yah, what do you know about Baekhyun?”</p><p>“If you mean the whole him being a demon deal, I know about it,” Jongdae answered, getting a nod in return from Minseok.</p><p>“Okay, good, I’m a demon too,” Minseok continued - and it took Jongdae a second to register this new piece of information, but when he did, he promptly choked on his saliva. “Sorry, was that a bit too sudden?”</p><p>“I’m the one dying, Dae, you can’t die too,” Baekhyun got out in a raspy chuckle, and Jongdae sent him a quick glare as he tried to recover.</p><p>Rubbing his chest, Jongdae tried to make sense of things. “I… I can’t believe this… Wait, does Chanyeol know?”</p><p>It was rare to see Minseok look flustered or uncomfortable, but that was exactly what he was looking currently, as he reached up to scratch at the back of his head.</p><p>“He doesn’t, no… I haven’t been able to find a good time to tell him.”</p><p>“I think you should do that, hyung, he deserves to know,” Jongdae said, wondering how his friend would react to the news.</p><p>It was a lot to take in… But it was also Chanyeol, the guy madly in love with their tiny hyung, and he did have his weird little quirks, to be honest. Would not surprise Jongdae too much if it actually added to Chanyeol’s attraction to Minseok, after he had had the chance to think everything through.</p><p>“You know, this is sweet and everything, and I agree that this Chan-whatever needs to know, but can we focus on one things at a time?” Baekhyun piped up, rather weakly.</p><p>“Oh, right, sorry!” Jongdae exclaimed, before tilting his head slightly. “What <em> is </em> wrong with you, by the way?”</p><p>“Hyung, please explain,” Baekhyun said, gasping and clenching his arms harder around himself for a moment, and Jongdae could not help himself - almost automatically reaching out to drag his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair.</p><p>Minseok shot Baekhyun a tiny glare, but he did do as told. Maybe he took pity on the <em> very </em> pitiful demon curled up on the floor, looking a bit like an injured puppy. Jongdae completely understood.</p><p>“I didn’t immediately recognize the aura of the barrier, so I kind of panicked and forced my way inside, tearing through it,” Minseok explained, starting to look a bit sheepish. “And since Baekhyun has tied the barrier to himself, it kind of… <em> Tore </em> through him too, but spiritually.”</p><p>“Wait, what does that mean?” Jongdae asked, looking down at Baekhyun. “You <em> tied the barrier </em> to yourself? How? Why? And you’re <em> injured </em> now, because of Minseok-hyung tearing through the barrier or something?</p><p>“Yeah, I’m kind of, <em> ugh </em>, protecting your home by my own power,” Baekhyun answered, wincing. “Normally there’s protective circles and shit, imbued by magic, but I just made a simple extension of myself, basically…”</p><p>“Which was a stupid thing to do,” Minseok inserted, arms crossed over his chest.</p><p>“Didn’t expect Jongdae to have powerful enough friends to warrant something stronger and more expansive, he wanted the bad mojo gone so I kept it pretty simple,” Baekhyun said, still sounding rather pained. “If I’d known you were friends with him, hyung, I would’ve done a loophole for you or something… Ouch <em> fuck </em>, it hurts…”</p><p>“You don’t do <em> loopholes </em> when it comes to protective barriers, Baekhyun,” Minseok said, and now he sounded tired, as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Having loopholes gives creatures a weaker point to try to exploit…”</p><p>“Oh,” Baekhyun mumbled, worrying his lower lip for a moment. “That makes sense…”</p><p>“That <em> makes sense? </em> ” Jongdae echoed. “Why are you saying that as if it’s not something <em> you knew? </em>”</p><p>“I honestly wasn’t supposed to end up here, but I kind of pissed off the demon who is in charge of protective summonings and spells, so he, uh, kind of forced me to answer your summon…,” Baekhyun slowly said, looking rather bashful. “So I’m not really well-versed in protective stuff…”</p><p>The fact that Baekhyun ended it with a cute little <em> ‘ehehe’ </em> giggle was basically everything that held Jongdae back from strangling the stupid demon.</p><p>“Well, that explains a few things,” Minseok muttered, sigh echoing Jongdae’s internal one. “I thought I told you to stop messing with Kyungsoo, though?”</p><p>“But he’s so fun to mess with,” Baekhyun sighed.</p><p>“Until he forces you to answer a summon that wasn’t meant for you,” Minseok pointed out, making Baekhyun look a bit dejected.</p><p>“Yeah, until then…”</p><p>The atmosphere turned a bit heavier around them. Jongdae watched Baekhyun’s droopy eyes turn a bit droopier, but he did not really know what he could do to make them not do that. They had only known each other for a little while by now, and <em> Baekhyun </em> was the one that was supposed to deal with bad mojo, was the one who knew how to use his humour to cheer people - or at least Jongdae - up.</p><p>In the end, Minseok stepped up to the challenge.</p><p>“Alright, pup, let’s get you off the floor, you can’t lie here and be all sad,” Minseok said, moving to help Baekhyun sit up, Jongdae quickly joining in to help too.</p><p>“Oh shit, everything is spinning,” Baekhyun gasped out when he was upright, still seated, triggering Jongdae to quickly jump up and sprint into his kitchen to try to find something, a bowl or whatever, for if Baekhyun turned sick.</p><p>When Jongdae returned to the living room, Minseok was half-dragging, half-lifting Baekhyun over to the sofa, Baekhyun actually trembling badly enough for it to be visibly noticeable.</p><p>“I hate this, this is the worst thing I’ve ever experienced,” Baekhyun weakly complained as he was dumped on the sofa.</p><p>“Really? Because I can think of a few other things,” Minseok said, raising an eyebrow - and Jongdae could <em> smell </em> the various stories behind that statement, and he wanted to know them all.</p><p>“Shut up, hyung!” Baekhyun hissed, which further reinforced Jongdae’s instinct that he needed to know whatever stories they were.</p><p>“Don’t worry, I’m not going to embarrass you when you’re already so pitiful,” Minseok said, condescendingly patting Baekhyun’s head, but in that loving way that friends did. “I actually should leave, so I’ll save all of the embarrassing for a later date. Count yourself lucky, I guess.”</p><p>As Minseok turned towards the hallway, Jongdae stepped up to the sofa, handing the bowl to Baekhyun with a stern look. “Don’t puke in my new sofa.”</p><p>Baekhyun pouted at him, but he did clutch the bowl to his chest, so Jongdae gave him a smile for being so good before heading after Minseok. The older was almost finished with putting his shoes on when Jongdae got to him.</p><p>“Did you kick your shoes off as you raced into my house to save me from an unknown threat?” Jongdae asked, not sure if he should feel amused or offended. “Hyung, isn’t that a bit excessive?”</p><p>Minseok shrugged at that as he stood up straight. “What can I say, it’s become such an ingrained habit in me by now that it just happens automatically. Or maybe a part of me knew that there was no <em> real </em> danger, or as little danger as Baekhyun can possibly be, so I knew I had the time to be a good guest and leave my shoes by the door.”</p><p>“I kind of hope it’s the second option,” Jongdae drawled as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Makes me feel a bit more loved somehow. Though you <em> did </em> somehow fuck up my guard dog for who knows how long, leaving me without that protection…”</p><p>Minseok laughed at that, obviously seeing through Jongdae’s sass, all the way down to his worry.</p><p>“He’ll be back to his annoying self soon enough, he just needs to recharge a little, don’t worry too much about it,” Minseok said, patting Jongdae on the shoulder.</p><p>“Okay, guess I’m not too mad at you then,” Jongdae said, nudging Minseok back. “Good luck with Chanyeol, please tell him soon. He deserves to know.”</p><p>Giving a small sigh, Minseok let his shoulder slump, even as he nodded. “I know… I’m just scared, I guess.”</p><p>“He might need some time to come to terms with things, but I’m pretty sure you won’t lose him,” Jongdae tried to reassure Minseok. “He’s pretty smitten with you, and you know that.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Minseok mumbled, but there was a small smile on his lips. “Anyway. If the little nuisance in your living room gets too annoying, just give me a call, and I’ll come over and deal with him. I’m his elder and know how to handle his ass.”</p><p>“I might just take you up on that offer,” Jongdae said with an amused smile. “Bye, hyung.”</p><p>With a little wave, Minseok exited the house and headed towards his car, pulling out his phone as he went. Jongdae had a suspicion that he was reaching out to Chanyeol - and he really hoped everything would go well between them. No matter how much Jongdae teased them, he really thought they were cute together, and would hate to see his two friends hurting because of this.</p><p>Not that one of them being a demon was a minor thing, but Jongdae knew that in the end it was probably a thing that did not matter too much to Chanyeol. At least it should not be a deal-breaker.</p><p>Closing and locking the door, Jongdae then headed back to the living room and his very own demon, still on the sofa. He was lying curled up on his side and honestly looking rather pitiful still, and Jongdae felt a bit bad for him.</p><p>“Hey, how are you feeling?” Jongdae asked as he knelt down by the sofa, noting that the bowl was now standing on the floor, hoping it meant that Baekhyun was feeling at least a bit better.</p><p>“Like proper shit,” Baekhyun muttered, before softening a bit. “Not as bad as before, though, and Minseok’s right. I just need a bit of rest and I’ll be back to normal in no time at all.”</p><p>“You better, otherwise who’s going to protect me?” Jongdae joked, before turning a bit serious again, reaching out to card his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair. “How about you rest for a bit longer, and then we’ll order some pizza for dinner?”</p><p>Baekhyun’s eyes, which had fallen closed at Jongdae’s touch, flew open again, filled with excitement. “Hawaii pizza? With pineapple on it?”</p><p>“Yes, I’ll indulge in your nasty taste, only for today,” Jongdae confirmed, rolling his eyes.</p><p>“It’s not me, it’s <em> you </em> having bad taste,” Baekhyun grumbled, but there was a small smile on his lips.</p><p>And Jongdae did not feel like arguing with the demon right now, so he simply stayed silent.</p><p>“Has it been, uh, bad living here, with me?” Jongdae spoke up after a while, breaking the silence and having Baekhyun look up at him in surprise. “It’s just, you seemed a bit sad before.”</p><p>“Oh, sweetie, no, don’t you worry about that,” Baekhyun hurried to say, reaching up to touch three fingertips to Jongdae’s cheek. “Living with you has been <em> great </em> , I’ve had a lot of fun new experiences, it wasn’t about that at all! It was only about Kyungsoo kicking me out like he did, being honestly a bit of a dick about it. Sure, I might’ve gotten on his nerves, but I don’t think that warrants sending me literally straight into the unknown. You could’ve been a <em> lot </em> worse, like… Some kind of crazy devil-worshipper who would’ve bound me to their bed and used me for sex or something, trapping me here without any way of letting anyone know that I needed help.”</p><p>Jongdae let out a short snort-laugh at that. “That doesn’t sound all too fun, no… And like kind of a dick move on this Kyungsoo dude’s part, I agree. I’m happy you ended up here instead of in some crazy person’s bed.”</p><p>“Me too,” Baekhyun agreed, smiling his brightest and absolute widest rectangular grin, and Jongdae had to blink a few times to get rid of the sparkles blinding him. “Is it okay if we just stay like this for a while?”</p><p>“Sure,” Jongdae said, hoping he did not sound too breathless, starting to card his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair again.</p><p>The demon immediately closed his eyes, looking as pleased as a cat who got the cream.</p><p>“Mmh, fucking brilliant fingers, I knew it…,” Baekhyun half-purred some time later, making Jongdae give an embarrassed chuckle as he tried to fight off the fluster.</p><p> </p><p>←～(☆ㅅ☆)Ψ</p><p> </p><p>Life returned somewhat to normal the day after Minseok’s abrupt entrance, Baekhyun back to his usual energetic self in the morning.</p><p>Or, well, closer to lunch, really, but he was very much not a morning person, so Jongdae was not too worried.</p><p>One thing that did <em> not </em> return to normal, though, was Baekhyun’s invading of Jongdae’s space. Instead of throwing himself at Jongdae and giving him a sleepy morning kiss on the cheek, Baekhyun simply poked Jongdae in the cheek instead, before bumping their hips together and mumbling out his <em> “goodmorning” </em> , lacking the term of endearment. And Jongdae very much understood why Baekhyun was holding back - but that did not mean he did not miss the Baekhyun who was <em> not </em> holding back.</p><p>Which took Jongdae about two days to realize, the puzzle pieces clicking into place as he was mindlessly writing out some code on a slow Monday morning.</p><p>“Oh, <em> oh </em>,” he whispered to himself, before dropping his head to his desk. “I’m an idiot.”</p><p>“I mean, some would call you something close to a genius, but I agree,” someone spoke up from next to Jongdae, having him twitch a bit in surprise and annoyance. “Wanna talk about it, hyung?”</p><p>Turning his head to lie his cheek against the wooden surface instead, Jongdae looked up at Sehun, eyes narrowing in contemplation.</p><p>Ah, what the hell.</p><p>“I just realized I’m in love with my roommate and probably has been for a while,” Jongdae explained, watching as Sehun’s eyes widened in shock.</p><p>“Wait, I thought you were living all alone in your new house?” Jongin spoke up from close by, making his way over judging by sound of footsteps. “Wasn’t that the whole point of getting a house, to have a bit more distance to your neighbours and be a bit more alone?”</p><p>“Well, yeah… It wasn’t really a planned thing, he sort of just tumbled into my house and never left,” Jongdae said, trying to keep it vague enough, but not <em> too </em> vague to invite more prodding questions.</p><p>“And then you tumbled into love with him, huh?” Sehun said, pulling a chair over to sit down in. “Hate when that happens.”</p><p>Jongdae could not help but snort in amusement. “You’ve got much experience with that, Sehunnie?”</p><p>“There was this Chinese guy I roomed with for a year during university, exchange student,” Sehun said, gaze turning a bit distant for a moment. “I wonder what happened to him after he went back home…”</p><p>“Extremely fascinating, but let’s focus back on Jongdae-hyung and his roommate,” Jongin said, also having found a chair to sit down in.</p><p>Apparently they were having an impromptu love meeting. Jongdae did not know if he should be scared or not.</p><p>“Right, sorry, please continue, hyung,” Sehun said, waving away his own experiences with a hand.</p><p>“What am I supposed to continue with?” Jongdae asked, feeling a tad bit confused.</p><p>“Well you know, is he handsome? Nice? How long have you lived together, and what made you realize you’re in love with him? Do you know how he feels for you?” Jongin threw out, making Jongdae hold both hands up.</p><p>“Whoa, slow down there, let me answer one thing at a time,” Jongdae pleaded.</p><p>“Okay, start with the most important,” Sehun said, supporting his head on his fist. “Is he handsome?”</p><p>“That’s the most important?” Jongdae asked, snorting in amusement - even as he was battling his fluster. “Not if he’s good for me or kind or something like that?”</p><p>“Considering you’ve seemed a bit more happy lately, I’ll chance that he’s good to you, so the handsome part becomes the most important,” Jongin clarified.</p><p>Surprised by that observation, Jongdae fell quiet for a moment, just thinking about that. Had he been happier lately?</p><p>Contrary to realizing his feelings, it did not take long for Jongdae to come to the conclusion that he <em> had </em> been happier ever since Baekhyun appeared in his home.</p><p>“Hyung, come on, don’t leave us hanging like this!” Sehun complained, a bit of whine to his voice, waking Jongdae out of his contemplations. “Is your mystery roommate handsome or not?”</p><p>“I mean, I think so…? I’d say?” Jongdae hesitantly began, not really knowing how he should answer. Was Baekhyun objectively handsome? Jongdae thought so, but he was not sure he could claim being objective about anything relating to Baekhyun anymore. Could he? How does it work when you have feelings for someone? “Though they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I don’t know what you guys are into, so-”</p><p>“You’re overthinking it, hyung,” Jongin said with a soft chuckle, patting Jongdae’s knee. “Considering the employees here, I’d say you have great taste and fully trust that your mystery roommate is handsome.”</p><p>“Ah, it’s pure chance that everyone looks good, and it’s mostly Junmyeon’s fault anyway-” Jongdae started, waving a hand dismissively - before the words fully registered and Jongdae dropped his hand to stare in deadpan at Jongin. “Wow. That was <em> barely </em> a subtle compliment of yourself.”</p><p>“But you agree,” Jongin pointed out, looking incredibly smug, and Jongdae could not help but think that Jongin and Baekhyun would probably get along well.</p><p>And that it might be a bit dangerous to introduce them to each other.</p><p>“You are a pain,” Jongdae said instead, shaking his head. “You don’t look like it, but you’re an obnoxious pain in my ass.”</p><p>“Oh, no, I think I’ll leave that for your mystery roommate,” Jongin said, giggling all madly when Jongdae glared at him, feeling his cheeks start to heat up a little.</p><p>“You’re both pains,” Sehun piped up, leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head.</p><p>“Oh, shut up, grandpa,” Jongdae said with a roll of his eyes, making Jongin burst out into his full laughter.</p><p>“I can’t help that I’m an old soul,” Sehun petulantly said, moving his arms to cross them over his chest instead.</p><p>“You’re not an <em> old soul </em>, you’re a middle-aged man stuck in the body of a twenty-year-old,” Jongdae teased, suddenly having a laughing Jongin collapsing against him.</p><p>They continued to bicker back and forth for a while, before Junmyeon came to see what was going on, using his boss status to send them back to work. Jongdae really should not have given all of his power up to him when they started the company…</p><p>“You owe me a drink to tell me about this mystery roommate, by the way,” Junmyeon said as he began to move away, herding protesting Jongin and Sehun with him.</p><p>“Why do I <em> owe </em> you a drink?” Jongdae asked in confusion. “Shouldn’t <em> you </em> be the one to drag me out to buy me a drink and get the details?”</p><p>“Normally, yes,” Junmyeon agreed, before raising an eyebrow. “But since I’m hurt you never told me, your business partner and childhood friend, about your crush, <em> you </em> have to buy the drink.”</p><p>Jongdae thought about that for a moment, before sighing and nodding. “Fine, I see your point, I guess I’ll have to buy you a drink sometime…”</p><p>“That’s my good dongsaeng, now get back to work!” Junmyeon called out, pointing at Jongdae before giving Sehun one last push and disappearing out of sight.</p><p>Sighing yet again to himself, Jongdae did get back to work. Only half his mind was on it, though, the other half still thinking about Baekhyun and his feelings for the demon. He had had his realization - now what?</p><p>For the second time in maybe half an hour, Jongdae put his forehead against his desk.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m home!” Jongdae called out as he stepped inside the house, slinging his bag over his head and putting it down to be able to start undressing. “Baekhyun?”</p><p>How strange, Baekhyun was always racing over as soon as Jongdae stepped inside-</p><p>“I’ll be right there!” came Baekhyun’s voice, from upstairs of all places.</p><p>Shrugging to himself, Jongdae pushed his shoes against the wall and hung his jacket up, before once more picking his bag up and carrying it towards the kitchen.</p><p>Putting the bag on one of the chairs, Jongdae headed towards the sink to get himself a glass of water.</p><p>Hearing the sound of steps rushing down the stairs, Jongdae put the glass down in the sink and turned towards the kitchen doorway, and soon Baekhyun appeared. His blonde hair was nothing more than a wet mop on his head, long fringe falling into his eyes. So he had been showering, that explained why he had not welcomed Jongdae home as per usual.</p><p>“Welcome home, Dae,” Baekhyun more or less shined at Jongdae, brilliant smile large, and Jongdae could not help but smile back. “You’re back early!”</p><p>“Yeah, I didn’t have too much to do, so I decided to head home early,” Jongdae said, leaving out the <em> ‘I was also a bit distracted and couldn’t fully focus’ </em> part.</p><p>“Oh? How was work otherwise?” Baekhyun asked, putting his elbows on the kitchen island and chin on his hands, giving Jongdae his undivided attention.</p><p>“Interesting,” Jongdae answered after a few seconds of thinking about what he should say.</p><p>“Interesting? How so?” Baekhyun prompted.</p><p>“We kind of had a… Mini-meeting that was pretty interesting,” Jongdae said, looking away from Baekhyun.</p><p>How much more should he say? Should he tell Baekhyun about his realization? He probably should… Yes, he really should.</p><p>But just as Jongdae gathered the courage to finally tell Baekhyun, the doorbell rang.</p><p>Cursing to himself and earning an eyebrow raise from Baekhyun, Jongdae headed towards the front door, already annoyed by whoever was standing on the other side of the door. All of the annoyance quickly melted away, though, as Jongdae pulled the door open.</p><p>“Chanyeol? What are you doing here?” Jongdae asked, before taking a better look at his best friend. “Wait, what’s wrong?”</p><p>Because something was obviously wrong, considering how Chanyeol looked like half a wreck.</p><p>“I just… Need a friend, especially my best friend,” Chanyeol answered, voice a bit gritty and a bit wet, and Jongdae hurried to pull him inside.</p><p>Seeing movement in the doorway to the kitchen, Jongdae looked up as he waited for Chanyeol to step out of his shoes. Baekhyun was peeking into the hallway, eyebrows furrowed in concern, but Jongdae shook his head at him. This was probably not the best time for introductions - considering Jongdae had an idea to what had Chanyeol showing up on his doorstep all of a sudden, eyes red-rimmed.</p><p>“Come on, Chanyeollie, let’s sit down in the living room,” Jongdae said as Chanyeol looked up at him, sniffling a little, hooking his arm with the taller’s and pulling him along.</p><p>Chanyeol collapsed down into the sofa with a deep sigh, half-sprawling across the cushions.</p><p>“I have no idea what the shit to do,” Chanyeol started with, causing Jongdae to chuckle.</p><p>“Me neither, but I might be able to help if you tell me what’s going on,” Jongdae said, sitting down in the sofa as well.</p><p>Exhaling deeply, Chanyeol rubbed at his face with both hands, before running them up through his hair, making it stand in almost all directions.</p><p>“Where do I even begin…,” he muttered, seemingly mostly to himself, but Jongdae still gave an answer.</p><p>“How about from the beginning?” Jongdae suggested. It might be the easiest to go in chronological order.</p><p>Chanyeol let out a little bitter chuckle at that. “I don’t know where the start is… I guess yesterday? I was over at… I was over at Minseok’s, just a regular dinner date at home, you know? But it wasn’t a regular dinner date… Or, at first it was, I guess, but then…”</p><p>Trailing off, Chanyeol dragged in a deep, slightly shuddery breath, and Jongdae prepared himself for what was to come, even though he was getting more and more about what it was.</p><p>“I don’t even know how to say this, and I know this is going to sound crazy, but… Jongdae, I know this isn’t going to sound real, but I can assure you that it very much is,” Chanyeol said, his stare pleading Jongdae to believe him. Little did he know that Jongdae was already believing him. “Minseok is a demon. Like, proper demon, from some kind of hell-dimension.”</p><p>Yeah, Jongdae had been right. Minseok had told Chanyeol, and now here Chanyeol was, asking for help, obviously overwhelmed by it all.</p><p>As Jongdae did not react immediately, Chanyeol’s eyes began to narrow, first in suspicion before hurt joined in too.</p><p>“You don’t seem surprised…,” Chanyeol slowly said, accusatory, eyes narrowing even more. “You knew. How long have you known.”</p><p>Jongdae sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. “Since Friday evening.”</p><p>“Since Friday evening?” Chanyeol asked in confusion. “What happened Friday evening? He was here?”</p><p>“Anybody want some tea?” was suddenly heard from the doorway leading between the kitchen and the living room, both Jongdae and Chanyeol looking up to find Baekhyun standing there, smiling softly. “I know it helps me when I need something soothing.”</p><p>Whipping his head around, Chanyeol stared at Jongdae with eyes so round Jongdae actually feared that the taller’s eyeballs would pop out in the next second, making Jongdae groan internally.</p><p>“Uh, Chanyeol, meet Baekhyun, I guess,” Jongdae said motioning towards the demon. “You want some tea?”</p><p>“Y-yes, please,” Chanyeol answered, sending Baekhyun a quick smile before looking over at Jongdae again, this time with intrigue and curiosity that had Jongdae want to run away.</p><p>“Good, because I already made some!” Baekhyun chirped, turning around and disappearing into the kitchen, before reappearing with three mugs somehow clutched in his hands, tongue peeking out through the corner of his mouth as he focused on carrying. Jongdae guessed long fingers really could come in handy for certain things.</p><p>Slowly getting down on his knees on the other side of the coffee table, Baekhyun lowered the mugs to the wooden surface, letting out a little noise of success as he managed without spilling anything, and it was incredibly adorable.</p><p>“Here we go… I didn’t know what tea you like, Chanyeol-ah, so I hope I didn’t mess up too bad,” Baekhyun said as he moved the cups around, then sat down properly. “Now, let’s get back to things, shall we? To answer your question, yes, Minseok was here last Friday.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, but, uh, what do you have to do with this conversation…?” Chanyeol asked, and it was probably the rudest Jongdae had heard the man be in a long time. Which was not actually that rude at all, since Chanyeol was generally a really nice and happy man.</p><p>“I’m the reason for why Minseok finally decided to tell you,” Baekhyun answered.</p><p>“What? Wait, who are you even?” Chanyeol asked, sounding even more confused, but Jongdae understood why.</p><p>“I’m Baekhyun, Jongdae’s roommate more or less,” Baekhyun said with a smile - before his entire being seemed to shimmer and glitch, like a misbehaving TV. “I’m also Baekhyun, Jongdae’s demonic guard dog, and a little bit more, but that’s not something that really has anything to do with current discussions.”</p><p>Jongdae, despite having lived with Baekhyun for quite some time now, had never seen the other in what appeared to be his full demon form. Hair an even brighter shade of white, with the addition of two braids to one side. Blue eyes now different shades, mismatched. His entire face seemed <em> sharper </em> , more <em> perfect </em> - except for the scar running from ear to ear, across his nose.</p><p>Baekhyun looked like the very definition of ethereal - but there was also something deeply unsettling about his visuals. And then he changed back to his much softer ‘human’ form, the one so familiar to Jongdae, and everything was right again.</p><p>A gasp from beside him had Jongdae turn to look at Chanyeol, who was pale and seemed to tremble lightly.</p><p>“H-holy fuck, y-you-” he began, before turning to Jongdae. “You’ve got a demon in your house!”</p><p>“Yes, Chanyeol, I know,” Jongdae said, patting his tall friend on the knee.</p><p>“<em> You’ve got a demon in your house, Jongdae! </em>” Chanyeol half-shrieked, making Jongdae wince.</p><p>“Once again, I know,” Jongdae said. “He’s here to protect me.”</p><p>“<b> <em>You’ve got a-</em> </b> wait, what did you say? <em> Protection? </em> What do you need protection for, are you in danger?” Chanyeol rambled, instantly turning into worried friend.</p><p>“Calm down, I’m not in danger, it’s more a <em> preventive </em> measure,” Jongdae explained, withholding some information that he did not think Chanyeol needed to know.</p><p>After all, Jongdae wanted to live the rest of his life <em> without </em> having to deal with Chanyeol teasing. But apparently Baekhyun did not agree.</p><p>“What Jongdae means is that he fucked up when trying to cleanse this place, accidentally summoned me, and I decided to stick around for said preventive protective measures,” Baekhyun explained further, having Jongdae drop his head into his hands with a groan.</p><p>“I… I don’t know what to say. I’m not really surprised, honestly,” Chanyeol mumbled, and Jongdae could hear the amusement starting to tint his voice.</p><p>“That seems to be a theme for y’all,” Baekhyun drawled, before shaking his head, not unlike a puppy. “But, that’s not important right now. I’m here, and I figured I could try to be of some help due to my special circumstances.”</p><p>“You mean the fact that you’re an annoying demon?” Jongdae shot back. “How’s that supposed to help.”</p><p>Wincing, Baekhyun pressed a hand against his chest. “<em> Ouch </em>, straight in the doki-doki! But that’s not what I meant, I was talking about the fact that I’m basically a longtime friend of Minseok’s and could offer some insight.”</p><p>“Oh,” Jongdae and Chanyeol said, in perfect synchronization, and Jongdae absent-mindedly wondered if it was due to them having been friends for so long, or just too alike. Maybe a mix of both, even?</p><p>“Yeah, so, ask away!” Baekhyun said, spreading his arms wide. “I’m here to answer whatever you might be wondering about!”</p><p>A silence so intense you would probably be able to hear a needle fall to the floor settled over them, before Chanyeol awkwardly cleared his throat and moved to scratch at the back of his neck.</p><p>“I, uh, don’t know what to ask you…,” he slowly said, and Jongdae almost choked on the sip he was taking at the way Baekhyun’s face fell. “What! I’m still reeling from this revelation! I came here to be comforted, not expecting to not only find an unfamiliar guy I didn’t know about in my best friend’s house, but also finding that he’s a freaking demon, like my very own boyfriend who has lied to me for a <em> very </em> long time!”</p><p>Chanyeol’s breathing was a bit strained by the time he finished, and Jongdae reached out to rub his back, hoping to be able to comfort. He was happy that Chanyeol had gotten all of that off his chest, though, because it seemed to be something that had plagued the taller, and Jongdae understood why. Chanyeol had very strong beliefs, and being truthful was something he valued a lot.</p><p>“Withholding information doesn’t mean he was lying to you,” Baekhyun said, keeping his gaze on Chanyeol as steady as his voice. “Unless you’ve outright asked him if he’s a supernatural being and he denied it, <em> then </em> he would’ve been lying to you.”</p><p>“Well, I’ve asked if he’s an angel a few times, but he’s denied that…,” Chanyeol muttered, looking a bit bashful, having Jongdae snort and Baekhyun quirk a tiny smile.</p><p>“So cheesy…,” Jongdae mumbled, shaking his head at his best friend.</p><p>“Trust me, I’ve known Minseok for a <em> really </em> long time, and the reason for why he didn’t tell you sooner is that he was afraid of losing you,” Baekhyun said, turning serious again. “He really cares about you, that much is obvious even after meeting him for like half an hour after not having seen him for many, many years.”</p><p>Placing his hands between his thighs, Chanyeol let his head hang forwards, sighing softly.</p><p>“I know…,” he mumbled, barely loud enough for Jongdae to hear. “It’s still hard, though.”</p><p>Getting up on his knees and leaning forwards enough to be able to reach to pat one of Chanyeol’s legs, Baekhyun gave a comforting smile.</p><p>“I understand, but I’m sure you’ll get through this,” Baekhyun said. “You’ve probably already come to a decision anyway, haven’t you?”</p><p>At that, the tips of Chanyeol’s ears turned a bit red, having Jongdae try to hide a smile. It seemed like everything might just turn out fine.</p><p>“I still have some thinking to do,” Chanyeol carefully said. “I think I’m going to go now, actually, to think some to myself.”</p><p>“You don’t want to stay for dinner?” Jongdae asked, a bit hesitant about if he wanted to let Chanyeol go just yet. He knew that the taller could think himself into a mess, and would rather be next to him if that happened, but Chanyeol shook his head as he stood up from the sofa.</p><p>“Nah, it’s okay, I don’t want to cockblock the two of you,” Chanyeol said, obnoxiously winking at Jongdae.</p><p>Feeling himself blush, Jongdae glanced over at Baekhyun, who chose just that moment to glance over at Jongdae too, causing them to quickly look away from each other.</p><p>“<em> Oh. </em> Huh. Well, shit,” Chanyeol said, obviously having caught the awkward exchange - not that Jongdae thought that was particularly hard. “Yeah, I think it’s best for me to leave now so you two can deal with this… <em> Whatever </em> it is going on between the two of you. Though I’m happy I’m not the only one with love troubles.”</p><p>Abruptly standing up, Jongdae began to push Chanyeol towards the hallway, almost making the taller stumble several times.</p><p>“Yepp, absolutely time for you to go, see you another day, Chanyeol,” Jongdae loudly exclaimed.</p><p>“I’m on my way, I’m on my way, stop pushing!” Chanyeol protested, looking over his shoulder. “It was nice meeting you, Baekhyun-ah, thanks for the talk!”</p><p>“Ah, no problem, Chanyeol-ah, good luck with Minseok,” Baekhyun called back, just a hint of fluster to his voice. “If you need any more help with the grump, just let me know!”</p><p>“Funny how Minseok offered the exact same thing,” Jongdae muttered to himself.</p><p>“What was that?” Chanyeol asked, looking up from where he was putting on his shoes.</p><p>“Nothing,” Jongdae quickly said, waving a hand in the air. “Anyway, if you need anything or whatever, just give me a call? You know it doesn’t matter when, I’ll be there whenever you need me.”</p><p>“I know, Dae,” Chanyeol said as he stood up, pulling Jongdae into a hug. “Thanks for helping me, you really are the best friend a guy can have.”</p><p>“No problem, big guy, I’m happy I could help,” Jongdae said, patting Chanyeol’s back.</p><p>Chanyeol tightened his grip on Jongdae for a moment, before releasing him and placing a hand on Jongdae’s shoulder, and suddenly Jongdae got this bad feeling.</p><p>“I know it’s been a while, buddy, but you can do this,” Chanyeol said, and Jongdae only needed a blink to realize what the taller was talking about - promptly making Jongdae blush. “I believe in you, you’re known for being able to charm the pants off practically anyone, so this shouldn’t be any problem for you. Hwaiting!”</p><p>“Out of my house,” Jongdae hissed, pointing towards the door.</p><p>With a laugh, Chanyeol patted Jongdae’s cheek, before doing as told. With one last wave he disappeared outside, striding with purpose towards his car. <em> Godspeed, young one. </em></p><p>Jongdae took a moment to just breathe, dragging a hand through his hair to calm down, before turning back to the living room. Chanyeol really could be an annoying little shit at times…</p><p>Baekhyun was sitting in the sofa when Jongdae returned, causing him to hesitate for a moment. For half a second, the thought if he should sit down next to Baekhyun flashed through his mind - but then Jongdae scolded himself for being an idiot. Why should he <em> not </em> sit down next to Baekhyun? It was Jongdae’s sofa after all!</p><p>Hoping Baekhyun had not noticed his hesitation, Jongdae collapsed down into the sofa in the spot where Chanyeol had been sitting, not leaving much space between himself and the demon. Which was purely by accident, and not something Jongdae had planned, he just happened to end up there.</p><p>“So, that was exciting…,” Baekhyun mumbled - and Jongdae really could not help the chuckle tumbling from his lips.</p><p>“Exciting, it was lowkey <em> exhausting </em>,” Jongdae protested, rubbing at his eyes as Baekhyun chuckled next to him. “I really hope things work out, though, they pined for each other for so long that in the end it turned almost physically painful for the rest of us, and they’re so adorable together that I would hate for them to fall apart due to a detail that’s never played a part in things before, as far as I know at least.”</p><p>“Yeah, would be a shame,” Baekhyun agreed, voice nothing more than soft hum.</p><p>They fell into silence once more, before Jongdae <em> felt </em> Baekhyun inhale next to him, the atmosphere around them turning a bit more serious, and suddenly Jongdae felt a bit <em> apprehensive. </em></p><p>“I… I don’t know if I was maybe imagining things or not before, but…,” Baekhyun began, keeping his eyes on his fumbling fingers as he took a deep breath. “It kind of felt like you were about to tell me something…?”</p><p>Thinking back to earlier that day, before Chanyeol had showed up, Jongdae remembered what he had been about to do.</p><p>“Oh, right,” Jongdae mumbled, also looking down at his hands. “I was, yeah…”</p><p>They sat in silence for a bit longer, with Jongdae trying to gather his fleeing courage again, before Baekhyun gently bumped into him with his shoulder.</p><p>“Do you want to tell me now?” Baekhyun whispered, glancing over at Jongdae just as Jongdae glanced over at him, causing them to lock gazes for a second before both turned away, and Jongdae felt his lips quirk up in embarrassed amusement.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, I do,” Jongdae said, sitting up a bit straighter and taking a deep breath. “I, uh, had a realization today. When I was at work, which is the biggest reason for why I came home early, because it distracted me so much.”</p><p>“Oh?” Baekhyun said, and Jongdae could actually hear the hint of hopefulness in the demon’s voice, which helped give him a bit more courage.</p><p>Jongdae already knew that Baekhyun liked him, so why was he so nervous about returning the demon’s feelings? It was stupid, really.</p><p>Turning towards Baekhyun, Jongdae waited the second it took before Baekhyun turned towards him too, and this time they did not shyly look away from each other.</p><p>“I like you too,” Jongdae said - and it really was that simple. Four words, not even using up all of his air, was all it took.</p><p>Baekhyun’s mouth dropped open as his eyes widened, making him look like a bewildered puppy, and it had Jongdae smile.</p><p>“What, is it <em> that </em> surprising that I’ve fallen for you too?” Jongdae asked, and that had Baekhyun snap out of his stupor.</p><p>“No, no!” Baekhyun exclaimed as he moved, pulling up a leg to sit sideways in the sofa and face Jongdae properly. “Or, well, somewhat? I mean, I know I can be pretty annoying, and I just sort of popped into your home without your full permission, so yeah, it’s a bit surprising?”</p><p>Jongdae gave a little shrug before he relaxed back against the sofa, feeling so much calmer and less tense, now that he had finally opened up completely. “Somehow you managed to be just annoying <em> enough </em> to make your way into my heart instead of being kicked out, I guess.”</p><p>Baekhyun took a shuddering breath, before he collapsed sideways against the backrest, cheeks looking a bit pink all of a sudden.</p><p>“You’re going to kill me, my poor heart,” Baekhyun whispered, pressing a hand against his chest, right over the organ in question.</p><p>“Imagine if I kissed you,” Jongdae teased, fighting his fluster. It was just so much fun seeing Baekhyun splutter, cheeks <em> and </em> ears turning even more pink.</p><p>With a little whine, Baekhyun tilted forwards, burying his face in Jongdae’s lap and causing Jongdae to let out a chuckle.</p><p>“Calm down, I won’t kill you through kissing,” Jongdae promised, reaching out to drag his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair - stilling as Baekhyun froze against him.</p><p>Sitting up so quickly it made <em> Jongdae </em> feel a bit dizzy, Baekhyun began to shake his head.</p><p>“No, wait, no, I don’t mind being killed by kisses!” Baekhyun exclaimed, eyes dropping down to Jongdae’s lips for a split second. “I <em> very </em> much don’t mind it. At all. In the least.”</p><p>Still feeling a bit bravado from his confession, Jongdae glanced down at Baekhyun’s lips before looking back up at his eyes. Seeing how they sparkled so prettily, Jongdae allowed himself to be pulled forwards - by some kind of gravity, maybe Baekhyun’s personal one - until their lips met in a soft press. He could feel Baekhyun exhale and slump a little, relaxing into it, and for some reason it made Jongdae’s heart feel so <em> light. </em></p><p>Tilting his head, Jongdae deepened the kiss a bit, but he still kept it soft, and Baekhyun made no move to deepen it further, just following Jongdae’s lead.</p><p>Seconds, minutes, half an eternity later, Jongdae pulled back, slowly blinking his eyes open, watching as Baekhyun’s eyelids fluttered open as well, a slightly dazed look in the demon’s eyes.</p><p>“Wow, if I wasn’t immortal I would’ve been dead now,” Baekhyun mumbled after a few moments.</p><p>Bursting out into laughter, Jongdae leaned his head against Baekhyun’s shoulder.</p><p>“You’re such a stupid demon,” Jongdae said after he had calmed down a little, moving his head to be a bit more comfortable, noticing how Baekhyun shivered a little as his nose bumped into the side of the demon’s neck.</p><p>“Probably, but I’m <em> your </em> stupid demon, so I’m pretty fine with it,” Baekhyun murmured almost directly into Jongdae’s ear, and now it was his turn to shiver.</p><p>“Yeah, me too,” Jongdae whispered - before he was pulled up and into a kiss so deep and intense he felt it down into his very toes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you made it this far, thank you! I hope you at least somewhat enjoyed it! Please leave me a kudos if you did - it's what I feed on!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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